


Nothing Stays The Same

by elvirakitties



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adult Harry, Adult Hermione Granger, Dumbledore Bashing, Forced Bonding, Forced Marriage, Hermione Granger Bashing, M/M, Manipulative Dumbledore, Mental Instability, Molly Weasley Bashing, Remus Lupin Bashing, Sirius Bashing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-23
Updated: 2017-02-03
Packaged: 2018-05-28 12:28:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6329155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elvirakitties/pseuds/elvirakitties
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dumbledore is dead, but his plots come to light. Harry paid a heavy price. Now has the Dark Lord and Light Lord, he is going to fix things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Hermione, Ron, could I see you in my office." Minerva McGonagall asked.

"Yes, Minerva, five minutes?" Hermione asked.

"I will have tea ready." She told them, leaving them.

"Let's just put this stuff away and head up there." No one noticed the tall dark haired man that was standing in the shadows, outside of the Infirmary.

____________________________________________________

Snape was waiting for Granger and Weasley under his custom invisibility spell by the gargoyle. He saw them coming and grinned, time to find out the truth. He knew Potter has been keeping secrets from him and he knew Potter was looking for ways to ruin his life, a life he wanted Potter out of. He missed them saying the password but followed them up.

"Ron, Hermione, I believe we need to talk about Harry." Minerva said. Snape tried not to snort, of course, it was always about Potter. That boy was going to get him killed.

"We know what you want to talk about, we wanted to speak to you about it too." Hermione said.

Minerva sighed. "He has lost another stone, the internal damage is going to take some time to repair." Snape wondered what does she mean, sure Potter was skinny but not that skinny.

"It's those relatives of his fault. They starved him so much that now when he is stressed or anxious he doesn't even realize he is hungry. I wonder if he even knows the signs of being hungry. We used to drag him to meals when we were students, but now that he is married to Professor Snape, I don't think he eats at all." Hermione explained to her.

"Snape doesn't notice and doesn't care." Ron said. "I blame Dumbledore. He forced them to bond after he did all that other stuff to Harry. I am surprised he isn't in a closed unit in St. Mungo's." Did he just hear right? They blamed something on Albus and not him? What other stuff?

"Severus doesn't know the complete truth. He still believes Harry was treated like a prince and spoiled by his relatives." Minerva told them. "I know I did until I saw his health report. Poppy wanted to bring the man back and kill him again when she got all those memory charms removed from her." Snape frowned, memory charms on Poppy? Health reports? This was looking very bad.

"He won't listen. Professor Snape doesn't want to listen. I know why he doesn't like Harry's father or Sirius, don't really blame him for that actually. Harry doesn't like them for what they did and how they acted. He hates bullies." Hermione said.

"I know and that is partly my fault, I didn't stand up to Albus and make him punish them. He always had his favorites and didn't care what they did. I know he let Harry get away with a lot in everyone's view, but if they could see those journals they would see it was part of his way to control Harry. When I read those journals and his yearly events he set up for the three of you, I am ashamed to say I supported the man." 

"I have been reading them, I checked some facts. I can confirm he was paying the Dursley family, all of them, to abuse Harry. I spoke to his aunt and Mrs. Figg. When I told the aunt I was going to press charges on her, she supplied me with numerous letters from him telling them to "keep him submissive", "make him obey" and "to deny anything about magic". His room was a boot cupboard, they had told him his parents died in a drunken car crash. The wards, he wrote to them about adding wards to keep Harry on the property, one was to keep from seeking help and one was to keep his magic suppressed. He told them he was adding it to make sure they wouldn't get hurt if Harry had any accidental magic outbursts. I had the goblins look at the wards, there was never any blood wards."

Snape was fuming. This couldn't be the truth. Albus wouldn't have lied about everything. He wouldn't have sent him back to be abused. He stopped that train of thought as he remembered sitting in this very office asking not to be sent back home. He remembered bringing other Slytherin students up asking the same thing. He remember the man conning Lucius and Draco into spying for the Order, acting like he was being so caring when the three of them knew that if they died he wouldn't have batted an eyelash.

"What are we going to do to get him to eat? He is slowly working himself to death. He is either working here, the store, or at the Ministry." Ron asked.

"Does he even sleep?" Minerva asked.

"He never has been able to sleep. When he was here he had nightmares every night, 4th and 5th were the roughest. Fifth being the worse, between the blood quill, nightmares, the attacks from Voldemort and Snape, I am not sure he slept, if he did, I know it wasn't much, more times than not his bed was never slept in. He would just go until he passed out."

"I know he can brew Grand Pepper-Up Potions in his sleep, actually he is very good in potions if no one stands over him, I learned also to back off, he can't cut exact because of the damage to his muscles in his arms, so he fixes the potions and I have to say they are strong and work." Hermione told her. "You have any idea on how we can help?"

"I am still trying to figure out why Albus did it all." Minerva said. "If we could understand it, maybe we can help Harry understand it, and move forward."

"It's not understandable. He sent Harry there to be abused, you read his parents' Wills. In both of them, they say Sirius was innocent, they list numerous people to give custody to, including you and Professor Snape." Hermione said. "He wanted him there to train him to walk to his death. You read that in his journal, he didn't think Harry would live. He made the contract because he expected them to die and him to get everything. I don't even think they know he had Wills made up for them with him as the beneficiary in them. I have no idea when he got them to sign Wills."

"Must have shocked him when he woke up in the afterlife, dead from a curse in a ring." Ron snorted. "Hope he is paying for his crimes."

"He won't here, sadly. Those journals are our only proof and we can't use them, we have nothing to back anything up. Memories won't be enough, everything else we have found can be used in many different manners." Hermione stated.

"True, but let's work on one issue at a time. How do we keep Harry from killing himself?" Minerva asked.

"Talk to Snape?" Ron suggested.

"He won't listen. I don't even think he has seen the numerous scars on Harry's body if he has he most likely written them off as being from our yearly test that fool put us on. Sorry Headmistress." Hermione stated.

"No, I agree, fool is a good description, from that Stone to allowing that toad to use a Blood Quill on students. Your assessment of Severus is accurate. He has blinders on when it comes to Harry, he sees James instead. I was hoping when he forced them to bond, that Severus would see the true Harry, instead, I am seeing Harry retreating further and further into himself and Severus getting crueler and crueler towards him."

"I talked to Harry about it, he said that Professor Snape isn't happy. Harry blames himself for making the man unhappy. When I tried to tell him it wasn't his fault, he told me, that if he wasn't around than the fool wouldn't have forced the bonding and Professor Snape wouldn't be miserable. I think that is why he took the other two jobs." Hermione said. 

"Doesn't help that if he goes to their quarters Snape either yells at him or ignores him." Ron added.

"We can work on their relationship later, right now we need to get Harry back to being healthy. We also have to tell Severus that Harry is up in the infirmary." Those words got Snape's attention. "How do we tell a man that his husband is in a coma and it's because he wants to die to free him from misery." 

Hermione picked up the note and read it again. "The only good thing about all this is that he didn't try to kill himself yet."

"What about those potions Poppy mentioned she needed?" Ron asked.

"She had them, she is going to need more but she wanted me to talk to Severus first. I left a message in his quarters for him to see me."

"I don't envy you telling him." Hermione told her.

"I am going to say this because I need to say it, but Snape might not help, especially if he knows Harry wants to die, it will get them out of this bond of hell that the fool put them in." Ron said.

Minerva sighed. "He will do it, he won't let him die, but they are going to be miserable and it still doesn't solve the problem of helping Harry."

"Unless we get Harry to finally tell Professor Snape he has had a crush on the man since his sixth year." Ron said.

"He won't tell him and that is also why Harry is so miserable. The one person he loves can't stand him." Hermione replied.

Snape doesn't know what to say to that and almost failed to leave when Granger and Weasley were at the door. Granger almost hit him when she turned back around. "Minerva, is there a way the goblins might help us with those journals?"

"I am not sure, we can find out after we get Harry awake." Minerva said. "Head to your quarters, while I try to muster the courage to go and face an angry Severus Snape."


	2. Realizing

Snape quietly walked to the Infirmary, thinking of what he heard. He knew it had to be the truth. Some things didn't make sense, but as he walked and thought about everything since he first laid eyes on the boy almost ten years ago. The small frame, James and Lily were tall, the lack of clothing or the clothing he did have was all baggy and worn, perfect for covering bruises and scars. Potter still bought all of his clothes too big, did no one teach the boy how to dress. If what he heard was wrong, no it wasn't, he knew it was true, he couldn't lie to himself. 

He opened the doors to the Infirmary and seeing no one around walked to the bed Potter was usually stationed in. He stared at him, Potter was nothing but bones with a thin layer of skin covering those bones. He picked up the notes that were hanging from the end of the bed and began to read. He noticed Poppy stopped the complete shutdown of this internal organs and system. He saw a fluid IV hooked up and read the list of potions that had been spelled into Potter. He even saw a note about using Essence of Dittany on his scars. He would have to tell her he has a newer paste that would work better. He changed the name on the list.

He pulled out his wand and ran his own health scan on Potter, a complete one. He paled as the parchment kept growing, when it finally did stop, he conjured a chair to sit in and began to read the parchment. He started at the first few months and it seemed normal until he got to when Potter was fifteen months, he saw a huge increase in diaper rashes and weight decrease. At four he saw the first signs of physical abuse and it got worse as he aged. Snape looked at Potter and back to the scan. No one should have even lived through some of these injuries, yet Potter had. Basilisk venom, Phoenix tears, they shouldn't be mixed yet Potter had them in his system. How did he even survive a Basilisk bite? He could see the physical evidence of surviving numerous Crucio Curses, he wondered how that happened. So many injuries that he wasn't sure how they could have happened. 

He closed his eyes and he couldn't even imagine that horrors Potter had endured based on the health scan. He thought about his adventures with his friends, all of them were a test. Granted the old coot never exactly told anyone what happened, he just alluded to everything was now fixed and move on with the next year event. He wondered how that old coot could have set them up. He let out a sigh.

"I see I don't need to tell you." Minerva's voice came his left. 

"How?" Snape asked. He knew she knew what he is asking.

"We found him in his classroom it looked like he was cleaning everything up. We found this on his desk." She handed him a letter.

Snape,  
I am not sure how to tell you anything, I also know you won't believe a word I write, so I am going to skip it all. I am just going to say, it's not your fault. None of this was. Do not try to place any guilt on yourself. This is a way to free us."

Harry

He looked at her. "We found a vial of Moonseed Poison in his robes. Poppy believes that between his lack of sleep, food and general health overall, his body started to shut down before he could take it. His magic couldn't keep him going anymore. Hermione said he made the potion."

"There is more to tell me." Snape wondered what she will say now. He was looking at the vial and saw the color, the flow of the poison, it's very well made.

"There is a great deal to tell you, all of this from you being returned to your parents, from Tom being returned to the abusive orphanage, even Harry's walk to his death before he killed Tom was all part of Albus' plans. Even him getting the Elder Wand from Gellert Grindelwald, he planned. There is a lot you need to know but now is not the time."

"Does Potter know?" 

"No. Only Poppy, Hermione, Ron, and myself know. We had to go to the Gringotts and get a full purge. I would recommend it for you also."

"How bad is he?" 

"He should pull through Severus." Poppy told them as she neared the bed. "It will be a long time for him to heal. He is going to need your help, and I don't mean just as a Potion Master."

Severus moaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't know what help I can be. For ten years I have tormented him."

"You never lied to him, yes, you have bullied him, even been very cruel, but you never lied to him at least as far as you know. You didn't know the truth and Harry never told anyone except in his first year asking to stay. I was there when he did. He told the fool about the abuse, I got a memory charm, Harry got sent back. During his second year, the Weasley Twins, Ron, and Harry tried to tell Molly and Arthur about the bars on the window of his room, they tried to tell them how they found Harry, they got ignored."

"Who helped Albus do all this?"

Poppy and Minerva exchanged a glance "Fudge, Umbridge, Lupin, and Molly." They watched the fury go across Snape's eyes.

"That is the reason why Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley have refused to go to the Burrow." He made the statement out loud knowing it was the truth, neither of those two would be able to be around Molly without giving it away and wanting to hurt the woman.

"Yes, the Twins have an idea of what is going on, they always were fast on picking up things. We have been working on trying to gather evidence but it's hard, it's been over a year, even your bonding contract is different."

"I am aware. I am afraid I have been taking my hostilities out on Potter for it, even though I knew it wasn't his fault. I never blamed him, don't get me wrong."

"We know. You need to talk to each other." Minerva told him, she sat down opposite him on Harry's other side of the bed.

"How long before he wakes?"

"I do not know, he has no desire to wake. Normally with this type of damage, once it's under control, the patient wakes within hours, maximum a day, Harry, I can't say."

"What potions do you need?"

"None right now. Hermione is already making the basics I need for him. I believe it would be better for you to start talking to him, read to him, give him a reason to come back." Poppy told him.

Snape looked up at her and nodded. "Tell Miss Granger she can help herself to my private stocks, I will have Gilly make sure she can get in."

"Severus, you can't blame yourself for this."

"It is partly my fault, I should have used my own skills to see the truth, I had no reason to be cruel to him because I was furious about our bonding contract. I want to find out how that was done, I also believe when Potter is better we will be visiting Gringotts." He looked at them. "The abuse I heaped on him when he first arrived, Albus wanted that. He told me it was to keep Potter grounded, over the years, however, it became real as he used it to control me, used Lily to get his way, and used sending me back to Azkaban to originally get me to start." He looked downward. "He even used the Vow I took to protect Potter to send him to his death."

"It's in the journals, Severus, he wanted you to join Voldemort, he sent you back to be abused and set you up to be in Slytherin. The hat originally wanted you to be in Ravenclaw, Harry was to be in Slytherin, he switched a lot of people's houses to suit his needs." Minerva told him. "When Harry is awake I will give you the journals for you to read. I know we can use your help in making sure the fool pays in some way."

"He will pay. So will the others." Snape told them, making a silent promise. "How did you find these journals?"

"By accident. Some of the house elves started cleaning my office, I wanted to get out of there and went to his former bedchamber, as you know I have been using the family suite since my family comes to visit. I went into his bedchamber to see what changes I could make. I wanted to turn it into a place for one of my older grandchildren to sleep in. When we began moving things, one of the house elves found a loose stone in the fireplace, while cleaning the floo. We removed the stone and found about thirty journals behind it."

"Severus, we will make them pay, we are working on it, but now we need to focus on Harry." Poppy told him. "He needs all of us to recover. This type of abuse doesn't go away overnight, it's going to be a long road for him physically and emotionally. It's also not just him, you need to work on your past abuse." 

Snape glared at her. "We won't be talking about my past."

"You might not want to take that stance, if you want to help Harry, you also need to help yourself." 

"These journals, how detailed are they?" Snape asked.

"In some areas very detailed, his carefully laid plans for Harry were almost step by step. He knew all along about Voldemort being on the back of Quirrell's head, he counted on Voldemort returning that year. He knew the diary was Tom's and in the school. He knew it was a Basilisk the whole time. Severus, he even got Horace to give Tom a book on Horcruxes."

Snape shook his head. "Is there any aspect of our lives he didn't plan?" The fool caused Potter to be bitten by a Basilisk. He had to have had Fawkes heal it. 

Minerva looked at him sadly. "No. He followed a plan he created after his father was sent to Azkaban. He wanted revenge and power. Revenge for his name being damaged and the power to get the magical world the way he wanted."

"Severus talking about this now is just getting you upset."

"Of course I am upset, look at where that old meddlesome fart's plans have gotten Potter and me. Potter is in a coma, I am hating myself for what I have done to him and others all be,mmmcause of his grand plan. We all just fell in line and did what he expected of us." Snape snapped at them. His self-loathing coming out in his words.

"Not really. You see, his original plan was that Harry would die when he was a baby, he was going to fight Voldemort after they were killed, using their deaths with the Longbottom's, to help unite the light and grey factions. He wanted to use the fame of killing a second Dark Lord. When that backfired he changed his plans and decided to set Harry up as another Dark Lord, using the Horcrux as the reason and that would have given him three Dark Lords." Minerva told him.

Snape just looked at her, they could see the shock on his face, he knew. There was just no mask that could cover his sense of betrayal, his failures of his own making.

"Severus, don't you dare even think of blaming yourself. That man fooled us all. He played everyone and we would still believe in him if it wasn't by chance I found those journals." Minerva told him.

Snape saw a potion in front of him and recognized it as a Calming Draught. "Thank you, Poppy. Minerva, I do understand what you are saying, and until I read those journals I can't say how I am going to react to more information but I am responsible for my own actions."

"I don't think so." Minerva sighed and told him. "You see, when we went for the purge, we found in our systems, loyalty potions, obedience potions keyed to different words and a lot of memory charms. I am willing to bet you will also."

"I am in agreement with her. Even Ron and Hermione had some in them." Poppy added.

"We also had a lot of compulsions tossed onto us." Hermione said, they turned and saw no one there until Hermione removed Potter's invisibility cloak, revealing Ron and Hermione. "We didn't want anyone to see us coming up here. We weren't too sure if we should tell anyone else."

"That is fine, I agree no one else needs to know, in a few days all of the staff will be gone for their summer holidays. You two will have to pretend to leave and come back later." Minerva told them.

Snape looked at them holding Potter's cloak. "Wasn't that in my quarters?"

"No, Harry always carries it with him, even in Hogwarts." Ron answered. "Snape, I am sorry you had to find out this way."

Snape felt shocked and surprised, Ron Weasley looked concerned about him. "I am fine Mr. Weasley."

"Yes, just like the rest of us were fine when we learned the truth." Ron informed him. "You weren't my favorite teacher but no one deserves what was done to all of us." Snape inclined his head in agreement. "Now since you know the truth, and I know you are going to want to make them pay, including my own Mum, how about you start calling me Ron?" 

Snape saw the boy hold out his hand, he looked around, saw honest concern for him from all of them. He took the hand "Severus."

"Hermione." Hermione held out her hand. 

"Severus." Snape said. 

"Good now we heal Harry and ruin the old fool's name." Poppy smiled at them.


	3. Harry Wakes

Snape sat by Harry's bed and talked about nothing in general, mostly about his former students and the messes they created in the potions classroom. He read to Harry at times, but mostly he just filled the time with nonsense, something he was finding surprisingly easy to do. He rarely left the infirmary. 

He glanced up when Poppy appeared at the end of the bed. "He is stabilized, I am not sure what else we can try."

"Can we force him awake?" Snape asked. He put down the book he was reading to Harry.

"I am afraid if we use one of the potions that would force him awake that it would react badly with the others we have given him." She made some notes on his chart. "You need to sleep too. I can watch him if you want."

"I have been napping off and on all morning." He looked down at Harry, it had been almost a week and they got him to gain a few ounces, he was back to a healthier color but he knew Harry still had a long way to go. "I already did his muscle exercise."

"I see. They need to be increased to four times a day. I don't want him to lose muscle mass, he can't afford it." Poppy instructed as she made more notes on Harry's chart.

"Increase the number of reputations?" 

"Yes, I will see if Hermione and Ron can help you too. Maybe between all of four of us, we can keep his muscle strength from diminishing."

"I have a muscle strengthen potion we can use. It is usually used for those who can't walk, so it will work."

"Let's add it, as long as it doesn't use Boom Berries, he will be able to take it."

"It doesn't. He has allergies?"

"Yes, to a few different things. Bees, Boom Berries and some muggle medicine his Aunt tried to give him that was her son's. The one time Harry actually got to see a doctor. The Doctor called in police when he saw Harry's condition. Albus covered it up."

Snape shook his head. "Poppy, I am going to ask your opinion on this since you know more about what is in those journals and this situation, but should I get the purge done before Harry wakes up?" He began to get nervous when she didn't answer right away.

"I believe it will help in one way and hurt in another. It will help because you will know the truth and hopefully be able to process it all before Harry wakes up. It will hurt in the fact you will know the truth and I am not sure if you will process it all before Harry wakes up. You have great control over your emotions Severus, so I am actually leaning with go to the bank and getting it done. Harry needs you to help him when he wakes, just like you are going to need him. Those journals aren't an easy read. They will take a huge emotional toll on each of you. It did for us and we weren't nearly as affected as you two."

"Have you read our bonding contract?" Snape asked.

"No, I can only say I know some of the terms because of the journals. We have been trying to collect as much information as we can without letting them know we know."

"How did he get Lupin to agree? I am really confused by that. I thought the man loved James and Lily."

"He used what happened in your fifth year to you to start controlling him. He threatened to have Lupin destroyed for it. When James and Lily went into hiding, Albus allowed them to believe Lupin was the traitor. They didn't know who the traitor was and believed Albus. He used the idea of them not trusting Lupin, eventually involving Sirius in not trusting Lupin. He counted on Sirius' emotionally lack of control that night, to land him in Azkaban, he knew it was Pettigrew all along. Albus got Lupin to be grateful for his education, played the guilt card on him. He basically used the man in a lot of ways. However, Lupin made his own choice in continuing to take the money and obeying Albus. Albus became his Alpha."

"Any potions or compulsions?" Snape asked.

"No, we took some blood during his recovery from his shifting. He had some scratches like normal and Hermione took some while she was healing him." Poppy explained.

Snape looked down at Harry. "That is going to hurt him. Molly too. He trusts them, fully. He thinks of Molly as a mother and that wolf as a father figure."

Poppy sighed. "We know and that is another reason we all need to help him. Severus, your life was hard, I don't want you to ever think we don't know that, but Harry's makes yours look like paradise."

Snape's eye bulge when he heard that. "These relatives, who were they?"

"Petunia and Vernon Dursley. Lily's sister and brother-in-law."

Snape got out of his seat and started to storm out of the infirmary. Poppy cast a protection and a monitoring charm on Harry and followed the man. She saw he was heading to Minerva's office. She sent a Patronus to Minerva. "Severus is incoming and furious."

The gargoyle moved out of the way as Snape dashed up the steps. Since it's summer there wasn't a password, not that would have stopped Severus. Poppy met Minerva at bottom of the stairs and they headed into her office. They heard, "how could you send Harry to the woman. You knew what she did to Lily and you placed a child in her care. A magical child in her care." They saw a spell fired at the portrait of Albus Dumbledore. From the burnt marks already on the portrait they knew it wasn't the first one. "Don't you dare to pretend to be sleeping. You left Harry with that filthy disgusting muggle scum." Another spell was fired at the portrait and they heard a yelp as it landed on Dumbledore.

"My boy, I have no idea what you mean." Dumbledore answered. He looked down that the burn marks on his portrait and back to Snape.

"You know exactly what I mean, did you think I wouldn't find out you placed Harry with Petunia. The very girl who tormented her own sister once she learned she was a witch. You made us bond or did you conveniently forget that you candy loving fool?" He wasn't going to tell the man that Harry didn't tell him about his past.

"I have no idea what you mean." Dumbledore replied back again and closed his eyes. They watched Snape walked up to the portrait, they saw his mouth moving but couldn't hear anything and saw the look of shock came over Dumbledore's face before the man got up and left his portrait.

Snape looked at the two women. "Whatever it takes, whatever needs to be done, we are going to expose the man for what he is." 

They recognized that a vow had been issued and knew he meant every word of it. Poppy suddenly started to leave the office. "Harry." She told them as she dashed down the stairs and they practically ran to the infirmary. They arrived to see an awake Harry trying to get out of the bed. "You will not remove yourself from that bed young man."

Harry looked up at the three of them and down to the bed. He knew he couldn't escape as of yet. "What happened? I was in my classroom, it is the last thing I remember." He began to plan his escape as he watched them.

"Don't even think of trying to escape." Snape told him as he took his seat next to the bed. He saw the confused look from Minerva and ignored it for now.

Poppy was running some scans on Harry. "I am fine, I need to get dressed and head to work." Harry told them. 

"You aren't leaving and your other jobs are aware you won't be returning." Snape told him.

They watched the fury build in Harry as he turned and faced Snape "I will be returning to them, you have no say in the matter, why are you even here? I know you don't care about me. As far as you're concerned I could drop dead and I would be doing you a favor." Harry started to get out of bed.

Poppy aimed her wand at Harry. "You are staying in bed, you need time to recover and you won't be going to work."

Harry glared at the woman and got up out of bed. They saw he was furious but in control of his emotions. He summoned his clothes without his wand, which should have warned them but they were too worried. "Young man you will get back into that bed." Poppy tried again. "I will restrain you if I have to."

Harry turned his back on them and started to get dressed, Snape pulled his wand and cast a stunner only to have it hit him full force. "Don't ever pull a wand on me again." Harry told him as he pulled his shirt over his head. 

"Harry you need to listen to us, there is something you need to know. A lot you need to know." Minerva said. "Please sit on the bed and listen to us. That is all we are asking. Can you remove the stunner from Severus too?" She knew she needed to get control and keep Harry here.

Harry looked at them, waved his hand and sat down on the bed. Snape moved a bit in his chair but just commented. "I wasn't aware you could do that."

Harry didn't reply. Minerva inhaled and began. "Harry, this is going to be hard, but we need you to listen. This is going to be hard to hear." She was aware she repeated herself and looked at Harry who clearly was waiting for her to continue. "About ten days ago, I found a collection of journals. These journals were written by Albus. He wrote down everything from his teen years up to the day he died. Harry, it detailed everything he did, what he planned and how he planned it." 

Poppy handed Harry a Calming Draught. Harry looked down at it and then to them. "A Calming Draught to tell me about these journals?"

"Please drink it, you are going to need it." Poppy told him.

Harry looked to Snape who just nodded his agreement. Harry gave a slight sigh and drank the potion. "These journals tells how he planned Tom to be a Dark Lord, how he planned Severus to be a Death Eater, even how he planned for your parents to be killed and you to be placed with your relatives." Minerva watched Harry take the news. 

They watch Harry processing what he was told. They felt the walls start to shake, the windows rattled, wind was building up in the room. Snape knew this was just like what Harry had done in Albus' office at the end of his fifth year and did the only thing he can think of and pulled Harry into his arms and held onto him. He felt the magic lashing out but it wasn't hurting him until finally. Harry collapsed in his arms. He held Harry for a few more minutes. "He is sleeping, Severus."

Snape laid Harry down in the bed and saw Poppy was going to put restraints on him. "Don't Poppy, it will just make him mad and he will be able to remove them." 

"We need to make sure he stays in bed. He almost died, and he can still die if he doesn't get some rest and recover." Poppy told him.

"I will make sure he does." Snape calmly told her. "I honestly wasn't aware he could do that kind of wandless magic."

"Neither was I. I wonder what else he has been hiding?" Minerva said.

"Can we blame him for having secrets? I wouldn't want my magical strength or abilities out for everyone to know. He has a lot of enemies still, despite killing the Dark Lord." Snape informed them.

"I will tell Hermione and Ron that he woke up. How long do you think he will sleep now?" Minerva asked.

"At least until tomorrow. that was some display. He is going to need to recuperate." Poppy said.

"No, he will be up soon. He did that display in Albus' office at the end of his fifth year, it was actually worse, I think he only passed out because of the overwhelming emotions. He will be up in a few hours." Snape sighed. "He never sleeps for long no matter how tired or drained he is. The most he ever slept without being in here was four hours."

"I want to revive that man and kill him myself." Minerva stated. "The damage that man has caused. All those lives lost because of him and his goals."


	4. Upon Waking

Snape inhaled deeply as he watched Harry begin to wake. He exhaled as Harry's eyes opened. He didn't say anything as Harry looked around and finally rested his eyes on him. 

"Get whoever knows about this here." Harry told him. "Now."

"Harry."

"Now, Severus." 

Snape got up, nodded, and headed to Poppy's office to floo Minerva, Hermione, and Ron. He can see Harry cast something quietly but nothing else. He knocked on Poppy's door and at her "enter", he stepped into her office and made the floo calls. He knew it wouldn't take long for them to arrive as they are all at the Castle.

_______________________________________________________

When they are gathered at Harry's bed, Harry spoke again. "Give me a few more minutes, I am waiting for two more people to join us." Harry got into a sitting position and got comfortable.

Severus took his seat, he had been watching Harry, very closely, but he still couldn't tell what was really going on. He wondered when Harry had gotten good at hiding what he was thinking. He wondered what would have happened if he and Harry had talked earlier about the contract and other things.

"Who?" Hermione asked. Minerva transformed a few of the water glasses into chairs for them to sit in. Ron was sitting next to her, Severus wondered when he had gotten so quiet. Maybe realizing what his mother did had more of an effect than he thought. He was beginning to realize the damage Albus Dumbledore had done was far more reaching than they can imagine.

"Wait." He heard Harry tell her. Severus glanced around the room, they have all changed he realized, those journals really have affected them. He wondered what was in the journals that can change someone so dramatically. A few minutes later the infirmary doors are opened, they all almost gasped out in shock as Lucius Malfoy walked into the room with another person. This person was tall, taller than most men, lean, with long arms and legs, brown wavy hair, a face that is a little long. He was very handsome and well dressed. 

"Tom?" Minerva asked. Severus recalled his memories of the Dark Lord from when he first met the man. It was the Dark Lord.

"Yes, Minnie." A sane and healthy looking Tom Riddle walked closer to them. He glanced at Harry, tilted his head, "they know?" Tom summoned some chairs to them. They sat down.

"Kind of." Harry answered. "I believe we are all going to be discovering some surprises."

"You're dead." Poppy finally managed to say, Ron, Hermione, and Minerva pulled out their wands, ready to cast some spells when their wands went flying into Harry's hands. Severus didn't say a word, he wasn't surprised by this, he knew Harry was powerful, and the earlier display should have told the others.

"None of that." Harry told them. He placed the wands next to him on the bed. "You will get them back. We need to have a chat first."

"It was Voldemort who Harry killed." Tom responded. Tom looked at Harry. "What happened?"

"Passed out in my classroom. I believe they also have the Moonstone Poison." Harry responded. "Which we need back." Harry held out his hand.

"I am not going to allow you to kill yourself." Poppy told Harry. 

"Kill himself? What are you talking about?" Lucius asked, no one had noticed Lucius pulling out his wand and casting some spells. "Lack of sleep again?"

"Yes. Leave it Lucius." Harry warned him. 

"Harry." Lucius started but stopped when Harry turned his face to him and gave the man a severe glare. They all saw Lucius back down quickly. Severus was impressed, he didn't think Harry would or could be able to do something like that. Severus wondered how he failed to notice these changes.

"The poison, if you please." Harry asked again. "Do not make me ask again." Poppy left to go to her office and returned a few minutes later with the phial. She handed it to him. Harry inspected it and passed it to Tom. "Make sure she gets it."

"I will, same dosage?"

"Yes." Severus noticed that while Harry hadn't been awake long, he was tired.

"You're curing someone of Witches Brew?" Severus asked. That made more sense to him than the idea of Harry killing himself. He never thought Harry would do something like that and had been wondering about that since he found out about Harry being in a coma. He would have to ask him about the note they found later.

"Yes, she got it cast on her during one of our little search missions." Harry replied. "Since you now know what a controlling, lying, deceitful old man Dumbledore was, we can now work together and share what we do know and how to destroy the man's name."

Hermione looked at Lucius and Tom and back to Harry. "You're the Dark Lord. The one the rumors have been mentioning. The one who has been working on fixing the mess Dumbledore created." They all looked at her, including Severus. 

"Correct. I am magic's chosen Dark Lord. Dumbledore wanted to be viewed as magic's chosen Light Lord, he never obtained the title. The Voldemort I killed was our way of hopefully stopping the war before it began." Harry looked up at them. 

"We created the fake Voldemort for us to destroy. However, when we created him, we weren't aware we had a spy. The spy told Dumbledore about this new Voldemort, the man used some old ritual called the Rialú Agam." Lucius informed them. 

"I control, you obey." Minerva translated. "He mentioned using that spell before on a few wizards and witches in his journals. He tried it on some magical creatures too, but it failed."

"Yes, this spy, by the way, we can't trust Black, was the one who told the old fool." Harry said. 

"Why aren't I surprised?" Severus responded. He saw Harry give him a quick glance but there was a small smile on his lips. Harry has always known he hated Black but now it seemed they are united on that front, it gave him a jolt of surprise. Harry Potter didn't like his godfather.

"It might have been Lupin, he was being paid by him." Hermione said. She was looking between Lucius and Tom, wondering exactly what is going on. Severus saw her exchange a worried look with Ron.

"I knew that. It was Black, I have never trusted Lupin." Harry told them. "I thought I could trust Black. Anyways, Dumbledore started using our Voldemort to do those raids and Death Eater meetings. He knew I saw the meetings and enjoyed using that curse on the Death Eaters."

"I am confused, isn't Malfoy and Tom-" Ron glanced to Tom, who doesn't react to his name "part of the Death Eater. He was in charge of them." He pointed to Tom.

"No, I am. The ones who reported to the meetings and did those things weren't our Death Eaters, they were golems. Dumbledore created an army of Death Eaters using golems. Some of the people he created from golems aren't Death Eaters, he used random individuals to increase his army size. He made those alliances on both sides. He used Severus. He needed Severus to describe those meetings and bare the scars, as it were, to show the Order how bad his Voldemort was."

"How long have you know he was doing this?" Severus finally asked.

"I have never trusted the man." Harry stated again. He nodded to Lucius.

"There is a reason why the Death Eaters were quiet for almost a year, and we would have stayed quiet, but the old man was pushing for a war. We were hoping that when Harry created Voldemort, we could push for a final confrontation, a small one, quiet, like the others, and have Harry kill Voldemort that way. We were in the process of placing Voldemort at the staged battle when Black, Lupin, and Dumbledore showed up. They kidnapped our Voldemort." Lucius explained. "Kreacher."

Kreacher appeared, glanced around and faced Harry. "Not sleeping again? Bad Master. I be back with food. Ms. Kisses is also doing better."

"Thanks, Kreacher. Tell her Tom will be by with more of the potion for her."

"They helping now?" Kreacher asked.

"I do believe they will be." Tom responded. 

Kreacher eyed Poppy, Minerva, Hermione, and Ron. He turned to Harry. "They will be helpful."

Harry gave the elf a small smile. "I know."

Kreacher disappeared and a few seconds later a tray appeared in front of Harry. Harry began to eat. "Take it slowly, it's been a few days." Poppy told Harry.

Lucius and Tom exchanged a look and Tom muttered something as Harry put his spoon down. "I am very aware of how to eat after being without food. I didn't pass out in my classroom because of not eating, I passed out because of my magic and lack of sleep."

"You have lost so much weight." Hermione said. "We have been worried."

"He lost the weight because of Severus." Lucius informed them.

"Me?" Severus looked at Lucius, confusion clear on his face.

"Severus?" Hermione, Poppy, and Minerva asked.

"How?" Ron wondered.

"Part of that stupid binding contract that I wanted nothing to do with." Harry snapped.

"Wait, you wanted nothing to do with it? I was told I was the price for you to stick around in our world and defeat the Dark Lord. That if we didn't bind you would refuse to help us. That is why some of those clauses are in there." Severus said. He was surprised and very confused.

Harry's confusion was clear on his face. "Dumbledore. I knew that contract wasn't right, but I couldn't do a thing about it. Black and Dumbledore signed it before I was an adult. I didn't want the contract."

"I believe we need this explained." Minerva said. "He wrote about the contract in his journals but didn't put any details."

"Because it's not a simple bonding contract. I am not telling you the terms. If Severus wants to speak of it to you then I will. However, it seems the man duped us. I was told by him, that the contract was created to tie me to Severus. Severus wanted the contract to break the hold that Voldemort over him, basically. When I put up a stink about it, I was told Severus wanted the bonding as protection and to keep spying. I knew you weren't spying on the right meetings, but I had no idea why Dumbledore wanted us bound. When I read the contract it became clear. Again, I am not going to speak of the terms. Severus can if he selects."

Severus wanted to dig the old fart up and kill him again. He had been played again and he wasn't happy about it. He knew that contract was bad, but they could have refused it if they had spoken to each other before. "He wanted us to be enemies. He was the one who enforced the idea of you being spoiled, and wanted me to create the idea of me hating you."

"Break the hold? But the dark mark is still on his arm. How did he create a new mark for him to use?" Hermoine asked.

"There are a lot of questions we needed answered." Minerva said. "The dark mark is one thing he only glossed over."

"You are correct, in one way, wrong in another Hermione. The dark mark is there, but you see, I have looked at it, there are runes in it. The runes tied it to Dumbledore and Tom. Tom provided the original mark. The fake mark is one that disappeared when Dumbledore died because it wasn't a true mark. That is how we were able to determine who were the real Death Eaters vs the golems."

"So even though you killed Voldemort and Dumbledore is dead, because Tom is still alive, the mark remains." Hermione said. "The Dark Lord is now you."

"Correct. When Voldemort was killed, the ones who felt the pain of the mark removing were the ones who Dumbledore created. They didn't have a true mark because the man couldn't speak parsel. It's one of the reasons he spread the rumors that snake speakers were evil. There are actually a few of us worldwide. Only Tom and I here in Britain." Harry started eating again.

"When I created the mark, it had to be taken willingly, you can't mark someone unwilling. He created those rumors too. The ones Dumbledore used, he didn't care if they weren't willing. He used them and usually relied on potions and spells to make sure they didn't say or do anything he didn't allow." Tom added. 

"You mentioned that you are magic's Dark Lord, who is magic's Light Lord now?" Poppy asked.

"Harry is." Lucius answered. "He was selected by magic when he was a baby and defeated the Dark Lord, fulfilling the prophecy. He became magic's Dark Lord when Tom used the ritual to return, at the end of the Triwizard Tournament. When Tom was returned but before magic could settle back down. Tom issued a duel to Harry. Harry won the duel. The real Death Eaters saw this, and when Tom was lying on the ground, defeated again, Harry took control. He started issuing orders, as he kept Tom bound. After the Death Eaters were gone, Tom, Harry, and I talked. We worked on the plan for Harry's return and how to handle it."

"How do you know he is the Dark Lord and Light Lord?" Minerva asked.

Harry inhaled deeply and groaned. "Stand up." Harry's voice was deeper, filled with magic and power, Minerva, Poppy, and Ron stood up without thinking, Hermione slightly behind them. 

Minerva gasped. "The Voice, you have it."

"The Voice?" Hermione asked. Severus thought she was going to be researching that for a long time. There was nothing honestly written about the abilities of the Lords Of Magic, and it was for a reason. The Lords usually didn't share that information so what was written was usually authors guesses based off of what they heard, however, the Voice was one thing at everyone agreed on. Only a Lord could use it and get his followers and those of on his side of magic would obey.

"A Lord's skill. Usually, it's not used like Harry just used it for, but it's a way to let their followers know he is in charge. It's used to stop quarrels in the ranks, get basic orders issued and at times to follow basic orders." Minerva stated. "He never had the Voice, he always said it was because he didn't like what it could make a Lord do."

"Those journals you mentioned, we are going to need to read them." Severus stated.

"What journals?" Lucius asked. He looked at Harry wondering if Harry knew about them and why not them.

"Minerva found a bunch of journals hidden in his quarters. We have been looking into what he has done but a lot of it is just rumors." Hermione explained.

"Can we get them copied? We all need to read them and it would be faster." Severus asked.

"I will see about it. If they are charmed against it, I am sure we can find a way around it." Minerva told them.

"Research if necessary." Ron finally spoke. "Harry, how long have you known?"

"Since he sent Hagrid to take me shopping. Something was off with how often he kept mentioning Dumbledore and picking up that mysterious package at the bank. I know Hagrid isn't part of this, the man is just loyal to him." Harry answered.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Poppy asked.

"Who was I going to tell? Who would have believed me? Any of you? You did nothing about me being abused, do you think I would have gone to you with this? We know Fudge was in his pocket, same as Umbridge."

Minerva and Poppy exchanged guilty looks. "He told us you had to go back, because of the blood wards."

"There was never any wards there. He had to know love, be loved and consider it a home." Lucius explained how blood wards worked.

"The journals explained that and we know Harry was abused, the Dursleys have all the letters Dumbledore wrote to them. I kept them, I used Veritaserum." Hermione said. 

Tom exchanged a quick look with Lucius. "How complete are these journals?" Tom asked.

"Some areas, very complete, some not so much." Ron answered. "Do you have any information we can add to it?"

"Until we read the journals, we can't be sure." Lucius stated. "We need to make sure Harry gets caught up on his sleep."

"His magic doesn't react well to the lack of sleep." Tom added.

"How long has this been happening?" Poppy asked.

"As long as I can remember." Harry answered.

Poppy held out her hand. "I need my wand." When Harry returned her wand, she did a complex wand movement and started to say a Latin spell. Soon a piece of parchment started flowing out of her wand. She read the parchment, paled. "He put blocks on Harry. Ancient blocks, something even Gringotts wouldn't have checked for. The reason Harry's magic is out of control with lack of sleep is his magic is trying to fix any issue it causes. Sleep isn't a physical abuse so the magic interacts more with his brain, causing the problem."

"Can we remove these blocks?" Lucius asked. 

"Yes, it is a fairly simple. He will need a potion, I can get the recipe for Severus to make it." Poppy replied.

"I have it if it's the one I am thinking of. He liked to use those blocks on people and I have had to remove them without him knowing. I will start brewing it after we finish here." He wasn't sure if he had any more stored, but for Harry, he wanted a freshly made one. Those blocks had been on him for way too long.


	5. Healing Harry

Severus watched as Harry slept again. They had given him the potion a few hours ago, they all waited and watched as Harry went through the pain as the blocks were removed. They realized that Harry had more than one blocks on his core. The power that was being displayed was amazing. they watched in awe as magic danced around Harry, swirling, the colors bright mixed with dark, blending at some overlapping areas. They knew Dumbledore had put the blocks on his power for he was afraid of how powerful Harry was. They were now seeing Harry was more powerful than they thought Dumbledore realized. The Infirmary was quiet now, as the others went to bed hours ago. Severus was there watching his sleeping husband. The husband who was in charge of their relationship.

Severus sighed, he thought he knew Harry but earlier it was proven wrong. The Harry he saw tonight was a Harry he wanted to know, a man that was strong, smart, and a Slytherin. The last few days were confusing and frustrating. Learning the truth about Dumbledore and what he did to all of them was shocking. Learning that Harry had been wearing many masks over the years and he didn't recognize it.

"Severus, have you slept?" Harry asked. Harry expanded the bed as he summoned an extra pillow.

Severus turned towards him. "I didn't know you were awake." He wasn't sure what to say to Harry. Everything he thought was wrong. He was sitting in one of the Infirmary chairs and it wasn't that comfortable.

"I noticed. Now answer the question." Harry sat up a bit in the bed and straighten the blankets.

"No, I didn't want to leave you alone." That was the truth, he didn't want to leave him alone. He always knew he belonged to Harry, even before that contract was signed. He had wanted to wait until Harry was older but Dumbledore changed that. Dumbledore used his Vow and the threat of Azkaban to make him agree.

Harry patted the bed, Severus crawled into it. He never fought with Harry about them sleeping in the same bed. "Talk to me Severus, what is wrong?" They had slept in the same bed since they were bonded, that stupid contract made that a requirement, thankfully the contract did have exemption for illness and accidents.

"I am not sure what I should say." Severus didn't want to face Harry. "I learned a lot in the last few days, nothing was has it appeared." He felt Harry start to rub a small circle in the middle of his back. 

"Well, we can start with telling each other the truth. There is a lot you don't know still, learning the truth about our bonding contract makes things easier now. We blamed the other before, now we know it was Dumbledore and his games." Harry told him. "How did he get you to agree?"

Severus sighed. "I can't believe I fell for it, but he used my Vow to protect you and threatened me with Azkaban. He basically said that since I couldn't be useful as a spy, I needed to be useful in another way and since you demanded me as payment, I would either submit to it or go to Azkaban. I believe he was counting on our not talking to each other."

"That sounds like him. For me, he said you demanded me as payment, but I had to be listed as the one in charge and all those other clauses to make sure Voldemort didn't think we bonded because you wanted it. I did try to get a lot of those clauses removed, but Black and him, well, they wouldn't budge. Black and Dumbledore signed with Lupin and Fudge as witnesses. I couldn't do a thing." Harry pulled Severus close to him, wrapping his arms around the man.

"Lupin and Fudge were with him, so was Umbridge. That was why he didn't do anything about the Blood Quill." Severus paused, this was going to be hard for him, he felt Harry rubbing his back and finally said. "I am sorry for the ways I have treated you over the years. I really did think you were like James Potter, despite seeing for years that you weren't." Severus turned his head and looked at Harry. "It became a habit to keep up the hate."

"Didn't help that he made it so that we would hate each other. The lies he told you, the way he forced me to be. I didn't want to do any of those yearly events but we got stuck doing them. Ron and I didn't realize until shortly before Yule break during our third year that the man was using compulsion spells on us." 

"Was anything true?" Severus asked. He wasn't sure if his life was actually his own, was his decision made by his own choice or did Dumbledore control what he thought was his own mistakes.

"I don't think so. Until we see those journals I really can't say. All I can say that is the truth is that I have had a crush on you since I learned you were the Half-Blood Prince. I didn't know it was you originally, but when I learned it was you, it just gave me a real person to put into my imagination and dreams."

Severus turned completely around and faced Harry. "You have?" So it was true. The thrill that went through him with that knowledge was amazing.

"Yes, I always wanted to tell you to write a book like you did with your potion books. They would make potion making so much better. You fixed so many misunderstandings in the other books. You explained the differences in cuts and why they were needed. That knowledge was and is important." Harry brushed a piece of Severus' hair off of his face. "I love your hair."

Severus gave a small smile. "I know, it's why I let it grow long. I have had a crush on you for a while too. I was going to wait until you finished Hogwarts before even doing anything about it, but Dumbledore beat us to it with that contract."

"How upset are you about by the terms in our contract?" Harry asked.

Severus lowered his eyes for a few seconds and answered. "I am not upset at all. I used the yelling at you to see if you would enforce the contract and hoped that you would. Instead, you usually ignored it and would do whatever you needed to be doing. Why do you have so many jobs?"

Harry smiled. "I didn't ignore your yelling or enforce the contract because I knew that if I did respond to them, I would have thrown you onto our bed and taught you exactly how much I wanted you. I really don't, I only work at the Ministry as a way to cover up what I need to do. I use the excuse of the other jobs to disappear and work with Lucius and Tom. The twins are also helping us."

Severus laughed. "I knew it, I knew the twins would be involved in this. They are too smart for them not to be involved. I want to help. I don't know if you want the others involved in this, as you are the Dark Lord and Light Lord."

"I wanted you with us from the very beginning, but when I went to speak to you about it, you had a memory charm on you from one of our conversations. So I didn't mention it again. I am going to be keeping them mostly out of it. Yes, what they have is vital information and they will be key to researching those journals but Severus, I don't want a lot of people involved. I do not want another war. We tried to prevent it with the fake Voldemort. I have a core group of people that I trust, I am not going to start adding a lot of strangers into our group."

"I understand and relieved to hear you wanted me originally. That means a lot of me. Who slipped me a truth serum?" Severus asked.

"It's not a truth serum. It's part of me being a Lord and you are my mate. We can't lie to each other. It's another reason why I tried to avoid you so much. Dumbledore memory charmed you a lot. I would like for you to go and get a purge."

"I can make a potion and get rid of them. I will do it for all of us."

"That would be helpful. I can get you the basilisk skin you need for it."

"How do you know what is needed?

"I have my masters in Potions, Defense, and Spellcrafting." Harry answered. "I am an Unspeakable actually, it gives Lucius and me a reason to be at the Ministry and get things done without anyone wondering what is going on."

"So all those potions accidents in my classroom?"

"Slytherin house tossing things in, but also the damage my relatives did. Lucius and Tom got it healed after my fourth year."

"What else have I been so wrong about Harry? I feel like I don't know the real Harry." 

"I don't know the real Severus, just the one he shows to the world. I like the Severus I have that sleeps in my bed each night. Do you know when you are really sleepy we have the best talks? As for me, the Harry you saw those nights and right now, that is the real Harry. I am the Dark Lord and the Light Lord, I am the Savior, I am the Boy-Who-Lived, I am whatever title someone tags onto me, but the real me is what is in this bed, the real me is talking to the real Severus. Masks are gone."

Severus was quiet for a few minutes. "Your weight?"

"Well, now that these blocks are gone, I shouldn't have a problem with my weight or sleep anymore."

Severus turned so that now his back was to Harry and snuggled into Harry as Harry wrapped his arms around Severus. "There is a lot we need to do, I mean it when I said I wanted to have the man destroyed." Severus paused and told Harry about what happened in Minerva's office and what he did to Dumbledore's picture.

"How does freezing him in the frame, putting a silencing charm on the portrait, sticking him down in the kitchens? The house elves can use the portrait for sleeping on." Harry gave Severus a kiss on his neck, causing Severus to moan.

"We could always set fire to it." Severus answered, pulling Harry's arms tighter around him.

"Yes, we could but I want the man to see us destroy his image. I want to see him ruined and I want people to look at his portrait in disgust." Harry buried his face in Severus' hair and gave him a long kiss on his neck.

"Are you turning into a vampire, you seem to be fixated on my neck tonight." Severus asked. He was enjoying the attention. "I don't think we can do anything tonight. Poppy might be upset if we do." While they may have let everyone hear Severus yell at Harry, no one knew that they did spend their nights together as a regular couple did. 

"I can wait until we get back to our quarters, but Severus no more hiding, no more you yelling at me. We have the relationship we want. No more hiding, no more allowing Dumbledore to control how we act with each other." 

Severus turned his head and looked at Harry who was staring down at him. "I never wanted us to be like that, but I was so angry and really thought you basically bought me." 

"I thought the same thing and I was angry for a short time, which set up how we interacted with each other. Just think if that contract didn't put in there about us sleeping with each other at least five nights a week, we really wouldn't be laying here calmly talking."

"Harry, how are we going to do this? That contract, you know I can't even leave here without your permission. I have been hiding the collar and I need to put on the bands, for me to leave here also. There are so many rules in that contract, Harry, I am afraid of failing."

"Severus while there are a lot of rules, we will deal with them and we won't be telling anyone of them. If anyone finds out it will because you told them. Sorry, I take that back, I did show it to Lucius to see if we could find a way to modify it or get it revoked. We couldn't find anything. Dumbledore had the goblins make the contract. The goblins we spoke to said they advised Dumbledore about making this contract and the price it would extract. He selected not to believe them."

"Your magic was part of the price?"

"Yes, my magic has been healing me for a while. This contract, however, with all its clauses and rules, stopped some of that, when it stopped it and together with the blocks I didn't know about, my magic was getting out of control. I was getting too hyper with the leaking magic and it would cause me to burn energy a lot faster, and I would go until I passed out."

"That is why you are so skinny, it's not from lack of food. Kreacher makes sense now." Severus said. "The blocks being removed should fix that."

"It does, I can already feel the difference. I can feel you as my mate, I can feel that you feel safe and secure finally."

"I do." Severus commented. "I can feel that you feel the same way. Harry, I was afraid when I saw you up here laying in this bed, then when they mentioned the poison, I knew you wouldn't kill yourself but the poison scared me. I believed for a bit of time that you would really kill yourself."

Harry pulled Severus as close to him as he could get. "I would never kill myself, and I am glad you believed that I wouldn't do something like that. I understand how you felt Severus. I am not leaving you anytime soon. I don't expect you to live at Hogwarts permanently. If you wish to leave we will fulfill the contract. Maybe we can get a new collar, a simple necklace might do. As for the bands, I am going to get the bonding bands out of my vaults. I actually wanted to give them to you a long time ago, but wasn't sure how you would take it."

"Do you think a necklace would work? We can just look at collars and find one that looks like a necklace and that way the contract would still be fulfilled. The collar Dumbledore gave us for me, I never liked it."

"We can do that, I don't like it either, but now Severus I want us to sleep. We need it."

Severus quickly turned and faced Harry, gave him a kiss on the lips and snuggled down so that his head was laying on Harry's chest. He was in his usual position for sleeping and started to close his eyes as he felt Harry's kiss on the top of his head. "Always?"

"Always Severus, always, I will also take care of you." Harry promised. It was a promise that Harry had been waiting for Severus to ask for. He had told Severus on their bonding night that he would always protect him, Severus didn't believe him, but Harry each night told Severus he would always protect him, he never got a response until now. Harry ran his hand down Severus' back until the man fell asleep. Harry finally closed his eyes thinking Dumbledore's plan for them to be miserable failure.


	6. Visiting Day

Harry and Severus were in the potion lab working on creating some of the potions to remove binds and memory charms. "How many do you think we need?" Harry asked as he set one of the timers for his first potion.

"One for each member of the staff, Granger, and Weasley, and the same with the memory charm one. We can do the bind remover first, that will take at most thirty minutes, depending on the number of binds and the strength of their core. I will have them take the memory one before bed." Severus answered. "I know you haven't worked with either potion before as the Ministry won't allow it." He set one of his timers.

Harry grinned. "Severus, what makes you think I followed the Ministry's policies? I may be an Unspeakable but what they won't know won't hurt them." He handed Severus some knotgrass. 

Severus laughed, a real deep laugh. "Why aren't I surprised? You know how to make them?" He started to chop the knotgrass 

"Yes, we had to give them to a few people we found that Dumbledore was using. He had them under some potions and spells, he bound the cores on a few and some even had leeches on them."

"Why didn't you say anything up in the Infirmary?" Severus asked. He was actually enjoying making potions with his husband. He dropped some of the knotgrass into the cauldron he was now working on. 

"Hermione." Harry answered. "While I know Hermione and Ron would never betray me, they aren't good at Occlumency, also Ron's Mother is involved, if I know Ron, he has already started to change his interactions with the woman and I don't want her to slip him something and damage what we are doing. Right now, no one who was in the Infirmary with us can speak about it." Harry paused, counted his stirs and continued. "Hermione, you know her and her following the rules and always believes the Ministry and before this Dumbledore, could do no wrong."

"True, so I am taking it, you won't be including them in what you want to do?" Severus asked. Harry's reasoning made sense and he couldn't find fault with the logic.

"Not in everything. We need help with those journals and getting the information, they will be helpful with that." Harry got up and went to the potion cabinet. "We need to order a few things. After all of these potions we are going to be low on supplies, especially if we want to start making potions for the new school year."

"I have a list made already." Severus answered. "Who is going to be helping besides Lucius, Tom, the twins, and I?" 

"That is it. Don't get me wrong, we use the Death Eaters for research and spying, but only we will work on putting everything together and make use of it." Harry answered. Harry sat down on his stool and began dicing some cloves. 

"Minerva might not like that." Severus warned. 

"Don't really care, granted those journals will help us, but I am not putting five years of work on the line for them to feel better about what I want to do." Harry answered. 

Severus leaned forward and gave him a kiss. "You sound so sexy when you say things like that. I love it when you are in charge."

Harry returned the kiss. "I know, oh the bonding bands will be here later today. I owled Gringotts so that we could leave afterward, together."

Severus smiled. "It will be nice to leave Hogwarts, it will be the first time in three years."

"I know, Pet. I know, and we will get a new collar and I want you to get new clothes. I don't care if you wear all black, outside of our rooms, but inside I would love to see you dressed without your robes on."

"You just enjoy how I look in trousers, I figured that out last Yule when you gave me five pairs of trousers and three pairs of those muggle jeans."

"You look sexy in those jeans. If you noticed I did get them in black."

"I noticed and why do you think I wore them in our quarters and would yell at you louder when I had them on." Severus gave him a grin. "How are you feeling? I don't want you to overdo it on the first day out of the Infirmary, Poppy will bind us to a bed if you end up back there too soon."

"After this potion I was thinking of taking a short nap. After lunch, we will go to Diagon Alley and wherever else you wish to go. I was thinking we can find a restaurant to eat out for dinner." Harry answered. "Trust me, I do not want to be back in the Infirmary anytime soon." 

Severus added the last of the knotgrass into the different cauldrons. "A nap sounds good."

"I thought so. After all, we do need our rest." 

_______________________________________________________________________________________

"Harry, what about that one?" Severus whispered as he pointed to a jade collar. It was round about 1 cm in diameter. 

"May we see that one please?" Harry pointed to the one in the display case.

The store owner pulled it out. "As you can see it's carved, very finely, with miniature snakes, that at one time I believe would move if someone spoke Parseltongue to them. Of course, that is just a legend. The collar is jade, the bearings are solid silver."

~Do you move?~ Harry hissed at the collar, causing the store owner to drop it on the counter top. 

~Speaker!~

~Yes, we move.~

~Stupid two-legged dropped us.~ The snakes all responded.

"Mr. Potter?" The Store Owner gasped, clearly surprised to hear the snake language.

"Yes?" Harry picked up the collar and looked at it closely. Severus reached out and touched one of the moving snakes.

~Oh, we are getting petted.~ One of the snakes said.

~I like these two.~ Another one responded.

"They like us. They like being petted." Harry told Severus. "How much?"

"Considering you are the only one I know who could actually use the collar the way it was meant to be, I would say 50 Galleons."

"Any protection spells on it?" Harry asked.

"Yes, but I think the snakes can tell you more than I can. I know there are ones that will keep the collar from being removed except by the one who put it around the neck of the wearer. There is also some minor curse and hex prevention ones."

~Anything protection charms or wards that he didn't mention?~ Harry asked the snakes.

~Yes, we will make sure no one can poison the wearer, no snake will bite the wearer and the wearer can understand the snake language, but only if the one who puts the collar on the wearer is a Speaker. Salazar didn't want everyone just anyone to understand.~

"They said there is a protection against poison and snake bites." Harry told them. "I will take it."

"Do you wish me to wrap it?" The Store Owner asked.

"No, but I do wish to go some place private." Harry answered. Harry pulled out his money pouch and paid the man.

"You can use one of the fitting rooms." The Store Owner stated. He pointed to the back of the store.

"Thank you, we won't be long." Harry explained. 

"Harry, he might tell." Severus whispered. 

"He can't. I used the same spell I used in the Infirmary, I saw a certain reporter following us and wanted to make sure she didn't get a story." Harry answered. They entered the fitting room and Harry ran a hand down Severus' face. "You know what to do."

"Yes, Sir." Severus responded and went to his knees. He looked down at the floor and felt Harry's hand under his chin. 

"Severus, I don't want you to look down or call me Sir." Harry told him.

"I know but I want to. You know I have to be on my knees for you to change my collar. He put that in the Contract, along with all that other stuff. You need to link my bands."

"I know." Harry stepped behind Severus and caressed Severus' back as the man crossed his wrist together behind his back. Harry summoned a small piece of chain and chained the bands together. "Not too tight?"

"No, Sir." Severus answered. 

"There is one more thing about this collar I want to tell you before you wear it. It will allow you to understand the snakes. Salazar Slytherin made the collar so that only when a Parselmouth collared someone, that someone would be able to understand the snake language."

Severus looked up and beamed a smiled. "Really, Sir?"

"Yes. Lucius also knows the language, we found a potion that allowed him to learn it, but only because he is bound to Tom."

"They are?" Severus was surprised. "Sir."

"Not in that way, I mean because of the mark." Harry smiled at him. "Now, let me take this awful collar off."

"Gladly, Sir." Severus responded. 

Harry took the leather collar off of Severus and replaced it with the jade one. "You know it really does look like a necklace, and it will be easy for you to hide under your robes if you wish." Harry ran his hand down Severus' neck.

"I don't think I will be hiding this, Sir." Severus answered, as he leaned into Harry's hand. 

"Did you see anything else in this store you want?" Harry asked.

"Yes, Sir, I saw a few things, may I get them?" Severus asked.

"Of course, now let me undo the bonding bands and we can go and look." Harry told him. 

____________________________________________________________________________________

Lucius and Tom entered the Great Hall and made their way to the Head Table, since it was summer there was only Poppy, Minerva, Filius, Hermione, Ron, Severus and Harry at the table. "Good evening." Lucius and Tom said together.

"Good evening." Minerva responded. "You are just in time for dinner if you wish to join us."

"Please do." Poppy added. 

Lucius and Tom looked at Harry, who nodded his agreement. "Mr. Potter, I fail to see why they looked for your approval." Minerva stated.

"He is our Lord, Minnie, it's up to him." Tom answered. He wondered if they even understood what they agreed to the other night.

"Actually knowing Harry, he could have cared less if we asked or not, but it's disrespectful for us not to." Lucius informed her. He looked at Harry and Tom, understanding passed between them. They knew the Light didn't have a clue what they did. Lucius wanted to curse the old fart, it's because of his removal of classes that the Light didn't fully understand things like this.

"I am afraid I don't understand why they would need Mr. Potter's permission." Filius stated, looking at everyone at the table as Tom and Lucius took their seats. Lucius to the right of Severus and Tom to the left of Harry. "What do they mean by their Lord?"

"Harry is." Hermione couldn't say anything else. She tried again, but nothing would come out.

"Harry is?" Filius asked. He looked at Minerva and then Poppy, who all seemed to be stuck on being able to answer his questions.

"They can't explain it unless I give them permission and the only way that is going to happen is if you take a Vow or agree to the same secrecy spell they are under." Harry calmly replied.

"You put us under a secrecy spell? Which one?" Demanded Hermione, she was clearly furious. She never thought Harry would be able to do something like that to them. She knew all the spells that Harry knew. 

"Mr. Potter that wasn't necessary." Minerva's lips pressed together in displeasure. She didn't like the idea of being under a secrecy spell. 

"Yes it was. He didn't even have to ask, or are you forgetting a few things?" Tom responded. "If this information got out it could hinder us instead of helping us." 

"What spell?" Hermione demanded again, she glared down the table, making sure Harry understood how angry she was.

"One I created, and no Hermione, I am not giving you the spell, the name of it or anything that would allow you to review the spell. If you find that offensive, you don't have to be part of what we are doing." Harry answered. "Filius, your answer?"

"I believe I am going to refrain as of now. I have an idea it is concerning our former Headmaster and some of his shady dealings and I wish to speak to you later about some things." Filius responded.

"I am usually here every night." Harry answered.

Hermione glared at Harry. "We will be speaking about this Harry." She nudged Ron, who was eating his meal and ignoring her. 

"No we won't, Hermione." Harry answered, and got up and started to exit hall. "Enjoy your meal, I have a potion waiting for me."

"Ms. Granger, a piece of advice, Harry isn't who you think he is. You need to show him the respect given to a Lord." Lucius informed her.

"Professor McGonagall, we need to find out what spell Harry used." Hermione turned her face to Minerva. Filius realizing a storm was brewing, got up and quietly left.

"I am afraid, Lucius is correct." Poppy answered instead. "Harry's word is our law." 

Minerva looked down the table to Severus, who was eating his meal, in his usual fashion, clearly not going to address this issue. Hermione was glaring at her and she knew she needed to say something. "Hermione, I would refrain from addressing this issue with Harry. His word is our law. We accepted that when he was in the Infirmary."

"But, he can't just do that. We didn't agree to this."

"Yes, we did." Ron spoke. "As soon as we acknowledged who Harry was up in the Infirmary and we stayed to speak about these issues, we accepted it. There was a reason why he did that demonstration." Ron leaned closer to Hermione. "The Voice." He quietly told her. "When we stayed after that, we were acknowledging his power and accepting him as our Lord." His answer surprising those at the table, as they never expected Ron to be so calm or accepting of this new development.

"There as to be a way around this." Hermione gasped.

"That is the reason why Harry didn't involve you, Ms. Granger. You don't like to accept the fact that you are a witch. Oh, you acknowledge your powers, but you are so focused on your muggle ideas. You never learned what being a witch means, what customs there are and what they mean. You expect to research things and get around things you don't like. A prime example is your stance on house elves, you want to free them, but did you ever ask what would happen to them once they were freed? Did you ask the elves if they wanted to be freed? Ignoring Dobby, you would realize you were killing a species. A magical species you want free because of your muggle ideas. Dobby is actually bound to Harry, if you had bothered to speak to the elves they would have informed you of this." Tom told her.

"I am not killing them by trying to get them free." Hermione snapped.

"Oh, dear. He really has you messed up." Minerva stated. "Hermione, you are killing them."

"I believe after our meal, everyone should head to the Infirmary to take the potion to remove the bonds he has placed on everyone. It will release any leeches or anything else he might have added to your core. Harry and I put the potions there before we came here to eat. There is also a potion to take before you go to bed tonight that will remove any memory charms." Severus said. "Ms. Grange, my husband considers you a good friend, I am going to warn you now, don't push him when it comes to being a Lord. There are very strict rules that apply to both sides, rules he needs to follow and rules we need to follow." 

"I will explain it to her." Ron said. "Dumbledore never wanted either of them to know our customs. I didn't realize the injustice in it because my mother never pushed them. My father, however, wanted us to learn them."

"We know why your mother didn't." Lucius said, "and we understand how difficult it will be Mr. Weasley."

"Might as well call me Ron. We are in this together." Ron stated. 

"Lucius." 

"Tom." 

Filius returned with a book, he passed the book to Minerva and took his seat. "Ms. Granger, I can only guess as to what is going on, but I believe I do have a fair idea, I would suggest you listen to Ron and speak to Minerva if you have any further questions. Now I am going to offer a piece of advice to all of you, if, and I do mean if, Harry is who I am thinking he is, which really wouldn't surprise me, remember he has duties, duties at times won't be pleasant for him and you will need to support him in those duties." Filius gave them all a meaningful look.

"Indeed." Severus stated.

___________________________________________________________________________________

"Severus?" Harry asked returning to their quarters.

"In the bedroom." Severus answered. He was reading in bed, waiting for Harry. When he couldn't find him in the potion labs, he headed up to the defense classroom and he could hear the training dummies and knew Harry was in there venting some of his emotions.

"I thought you would be still in the lab." Harry sat down on the edge of the bed and began to remove his boots. He stood up and headed to the bathroom.

"No." Severus closed his book and put it on the bedside table. "You want your silk black sleep pants?" Severus got up and went to their wardrobe and removed the desired garment. He headed to the bathroom. He stopped and stood in the doorway, holding out the pants. "Granger might be a problem."

"I agree. It's one of the reasons I didn't ask for their help."

"Weasley surprised me. He actually was calm." Severus said. "He also wants Lucius and Tom to call him by his first name."

"He also surprised me too. Usually, he was so jealous of everything I got. He never thought for a moment what fame cost me." Harry took the pants from Severus' hands. "Am I really going to need these tonight?"

"Not if you play your cards right." Severus answered. 

"Tease." Harry gave him a kiss. "Anything interesting happen after I left?"

"A few things." Severus answered as Harry took his hand and guided them to their bed. "Ron explained how she agreed and said he would explain about Lords to her. He kept calm through everything, no emotional outbursts, even asked Tom and Lucius to call him Ron. When they took the potions up in the Infirmary, a lot of magic was released, however, nothing was released from Granger."

"Nothing?" Harry tucked in behind Severus. 

"Yes, it was strange, I would have thought he would have bound her in some way."

"No leech?" 

"No, Poppy ran a scan, she came up completely clean for a binding on her core."

"I wonder why he didn't do anything to her?" Harry asked.

"Her love of authority figures maybe he figured he didn't have to worry." 

"That is certainly true." Harry answered. He gave Severus a kiss on the back of his neck. "Anything else?"

"I can show you the memory tomorrow, something Tom said I am hoping will wake her up. Filius, I believe, knows you are the Light Lord."

"I wouldn't be surprised it he didn't. He is older than Dumbledore was." Harry answered. "Now, how about we see if the snakes want to dance for us?"

Severus laughed. "I forgot to speak to Tom in parseltongue tonight, I wanted to shock him."

Harry leaned up and kissed his husband. Severus returned the kiss and laid himself on his back and pulled Harry towards him. "I am ready for you." Severus told him.

"I know." Harry answered, giving him a kiss and noxed the candles in the room.


	7. Severus

Severus opened his eyes and smiled, he felt happy, which to him was an amazing thing. He lifted his head off of Harry's chest and kissed the man. "I was wondering what you would do." Harry told him. 

"I would like to do a lot more." Severus rubbed against him. He needed Harry to take care of him.

"What do you want Sev?" Harry a hand down Severus' back and gave his butt a squeeze. He kept his hands running over Severus' body. Enjoying the way the man could move, Harry at times wondered at times if Severus had any bones, the man withered wonderful. He knew he could keep on the edge for hours as he had done it before.

"Please." Severus moaned as he felt himself being caressed. Severus knew Harry would take charge and he loved it when Harry showed him who was in charge.

"Tell me Sev." Harry gave him a kiss, he felt Severus' yield as the man own mouth and tongue allowed Harry to take control, he knew Severus wanted and needed it. He also knew the old fool had not clue that they were so well matched.

"Please, Sir, I need you." Severus finally replied as he arched into Harry's hands. He was moved so that he now laid flat on the bed, with his husband leaning over him. "Please, you know what I want."

"I know. You need to ask, or have you forgotten?" Dumbledore had added that into the contract, for some strange reason, just has he added they were required to sleep in the same bed each night unless they were in the Infirmary or that Harry would be away from the Castle, but no more than three nights in a two week period. "I never do anything to you without you asking." Harry said he kissed Severus again. "You know what to do, my beautiful mate." They had to jump through so many rules the old man had added, not realizing how much Harry and Severus would actually enjoy those rules. They took full advantage of those rules.

Severus tried not to preen at those words but he knew he was failing, he needed and craved the kind of attention Harry was giving. He knew Harry would take care of him, as he always had. "Please, Sir, show me who is in charge. Remind me that I belong to you." He never would know how the old fart knew, but as they had mentioned more than once to each other, they didn't think that he did. They truly thought he did it as a way to make them miserable.

Harry's grinned as he played with Severus's left nipple, the one that was more sensitive. He enjoyed watching the pleasure Severus' face and body were reflecting. "How do you feel about getting your nipples pierced?" Harry asked as he continued to tease the nipple. 

"Whatever you want. You know I will do it, especially if it will increase our pleasure." Severus answered as his fingers clenched the sheets. He was trying to hold still as Harry played with his body. He hoped Harry wouldn't spend hours teasing him, working him like this, but since he wasn't being told to keep still, he hoped it would be a faster night. Maybe if he got lucky, Harry would wake him during the night for another round. They had a lot of make-up sex to see too as far as Severus was concerned.

"You are thinking too much, what are you thinking about?" Harry asked as he pulled his head away from Severus' body.

"How much make-up sex we have coming to us." Severus answered.

"Make-up?" Harry tilted his head for a second, he was confused how Severus arrived at that.

"Yes, for all the yelling I did. I need to make-up for that, you need to make-up for not telling me all these years about you being the Lords." Severus gave him a smug look. "Also for keeping me in that awful collar."

Harry laughed. "I believe that I can make sure we have plenty of make-up sex." He ran a hand down Severus' body and was about to continue when their wards went off. "It's Lucius and Tom."

"At this hour?" Severus asked.

"Something must have happened." Harry told him and got out of bed, grabbed his dressing gown and headed out of their bedroom and towards the entrance. 

Severus quickly got out and put on some clothes with a quick spell and followed him. Lucius and Tom were just entering their quarters when Lucius spoke. "We have a problem."

"What happened?" Harry asked. He looked at them closely, they were clearly annoyed.

"Granger." Tom snapped. "The girl is nothing but trouble."

"Somehow, she got Molly Weasley all worked up. Molly, in turn, went to the Ministry with a bogus complaint, dragging Granger with her. They raided my home, they just left about thirty minutes ago, finding nothing."

"Do we know exactly what they claimed?" Harry asked. He began to pace as he thought about this new development.

The floo came to live. "Harry, Severus." Minerva's voice came through.

"We are here, Minerva, what is wrong?" Severus asked.

"Hermione. Ron has been trying to get to us all night, it seems they left him bound at the Burrow, he finally got free and just got here." Minerva told them.

"Get everyone in your office. We will be there shortly." Harry informed her. "Poppy, the twins, and Filius if he is interested. I haven't spoken to him as of yet, but that man isn't stupid."

"I will get them here." Minerva answered.

"I am so glad I used that spell on her." Harry muttered.

"She was furious about that, now I think I know why." Tom told him. "She had to be with Dumbledore, despite her words in the Infirmary." 

"I am in agreement. I think she has been his little spy all along." Severus said. "It would make sense, how else would she have known so much and yet get you to do those adventures." 

"I believe you are correct. I was hoping she wasn't, but it's becoming clear she was. Why else would she go to Molly?" Harry sighed, he really was hoping that she wasn't in on it. Ron, he never thought was, he was too easy to read. Granger on the other head wasn't as easy. He snapped his fingers and was dressed. "Let's go and clean up this mess."

They four of them headed up to the Headmistress's office. When they arrived they found everyone waiting for them. Ron said. "I already had flooed the twins, before I even left the Burrow. Told them to meet me here." They quickly found seats.

"Yes, oh Great Leader, we were on our way already." Fred told him.

"We figured you would want to speak about this." George said. 

"True. So what exactly happened?" Harry asked. 

"If someone can pull the memory you will be able to see for yourself." Ron told them. "She knew exactly what it meant to be a Lord." 

"Figures." Harry said. "One question before we go into the memory, how did they get the Aurors to raid Malfoy Manor?"

"Their plan was to go and say you had been kidnapped and were there, Granger-" Ron spat the name out "didn't like that idea, said it went against what that meddlesome old fart would want, and it wouldn't lead to anything so they changed it to Draco being seen at Hogwarts with Lucius and how she was afraid after she heard about them speaking about some dark object they wanted to sneak into the school, and using Lucius' position on the Board to search for the best area to leave it so that it would damage the most students over time."

"Clever but clearly the Aurors missed a few key points in that story that should have warned them it was fake." Harry grumbled.

"True, the wards would have let us know, and Draco hasn't been back here since he left to study in Paris." Minerva said.

"He is still there." Lucius said. "I am going to be going to Amelia and Kingsley in the morning and will be filing a complaint."

"Good, also find out why we didn't know ahead of time." Harry said. "Let's look at his memory and see what else we can find out." 

"Do you mind if I pull it, Ron?" Tom asked.

"No, that is fine, I would feel better if it was you, Severus or Harry. I know you three know Occlumency."

"Does Granger?" Harry asked, an idea forming in his head. 

"No, she tried to learn it but Dumbledore wouldn't give her lessons and he didn't allow anyone else to either. I know she read the books and has an idea of how to do it, but without anyone working on it with her, she never mastered it." Ron answered.

"Well as her Lord, since she accepted it, you can still control what she can say or do." Filius answered. "Being the Dark and Light Lord, it won't matter if she switches alliances to the Dark." 

"I knew you would figure it out." Harry smiled, he knew from earlier that Filius had an idea of what was going on.

"I am so glad I didn't bet on that." Lucius said. 

"Me either." Tom and Severus added. 

"I learned not to bet against him years ago." Ron informed them. "Well, let's get this over with. Minerva can I sleep somewhere else tonight? I am not going to be returning to our quarters, in case she shows up. I don't think I am going to be welcomed back at the Burrow anytime soon."

"Yes, and you can stay as long as you need to." Minerva informed him. She placed the pensive on the desk.

"Thank you." Ron said.

Tom pulled out his wand and walked towards Ron "think of what happened." Tom touched the wand to Ron's head and the memory flowed into the vial he was holding.

**********************************Memory begins***********************************

"We can just floo in and grab your stuff and leave." Hermione told Ron.

"Fine, but I am not staying." Ron replied. They entered the floo that was in the Hog's Head Tavern. When they came out they were in the kitchen at the Burrow. "Hi, Mum. I just need to grab some stuff from my room. I won't be but a few minutes." 

"That is fine dear." Mrs. Weasley said. "Hermione, how about a cup of tea?"

"That would be wonderful." Hermione answered. 

"Should have known right there that something wasn't right." Ron told them.

Ron went up the stairs to his room and gathered some clothes and things from his room and headed back down to the kitchen, he could see his mother at the sink when he got hit with a stunner. "Got him." Hermione said. "Good, so how do we want to do this?"

"We will go to the Ministry. We will tell them that you saw the Malfoys kidnap Harry from Hogwarts, he was heading out to the apparition spot when you saw them grab him."

"That won't work. We don't know if Malfoy is at the Ministry." Hermione paused and looked at Ron, "Molly do you have those potions you used to give to Ron and Harry?"

"No, but it won't take long to make one." Molly answered.

"Great, we will leave him tied up, go to the Ministry. We will go to Kingsley and tell him that I heard Malfoy and Malfoy Jr. speaking about putting a dark artifact in Hogwarts. They were looking for a spot to set it up that it would do the most damage but wouldn't be seen. They were looking at the alcoves and closets." Hermione answered.

"That sounds good, and that way we don't have to worry about them not finding anything either." Molly waved her wand, "Incarcerous." Ron was tied up in ropes. He was still stunned and couldn't move.

"Yes, and I also got those journals. I had a hard time getting Minerva to give them to me, but we don't have to worry now since I have them, we can destroy them. They will need more than just whatever proof they get that Albus planned all of this." Hermione told her. 

"Are you sure you got them, they didn't get a chance to copy them?" Molly asked as she stuck a gag into Ron's mouth.

"Yes, Minerva said she wasn't sure about copying them. I made sure to ask. They actually believed me about following Harry." Hermione tried to say more but the spell Harry created stopped her. 

"Well, once we get the Malfoy family taken care, we can work on getting rid of the others, I am sure we can find evidence that Tom was Voldemort and he wasn't destroyed." Molly informed her. "For Harry, it might be harder, he is well regarded."

"We will let it out that he is a Horcrux." Hermione told her smugly.

"That won't work, any of the Unspeakables can cast a spell and prove that he isn't." Molly told her.

"I can use my memories to show he was." Hermione said.

"You might be dragged in for questioning about it and not doing anything if you did. No, I would rather a safer idea. Since Fudge and Umbridge aren't in power they are useless, they burned any credit they had, Remus and Sirius are equally useless, Harry won't trust them based on what you said." Molly answered.

"Well, we will memory charm Ron, Harry will still trust me, and we can stop anything they are doing. I will just play the dutiful little best friend." Hermione told her. 

"That is the only option we have. I will make the loyalty and obedience potions tonight, we can leave him tied up, Arthur is over at Bill's working on some curse thing he wanted Bill to check out." Molly answered.

"That is fine, I will floo back to Hogwarts later tonight, I will say that Ron went with Arthur to Bill's. I didn't want to go and came home. I will tell them we didn't want to give away that we know about what happened." 

Ron glared at the pair as they headed to the floo. 

*****************memory ends***************************

"I started to struggle after that, the stunner wore off while they were talking."

"I honestly thought she was in support of us. I mean we talked about the journals, she went to the Dursleys and got those notes." Minerva said.

"She went to them?" Harry muttered and looked at Lucius and Tom. "They wouldn't have admitted to that. They also wouldn't have even allowed her in the house. They hate what they call freaks." At the word freak, the bitterness was clear in Harry's voice.

"She said she used Veritaserum on them." Ron said.

Harry looked at Severus "I feel like an idiot, I didn't even catch that." Severus responded.

"I am afraid we're missing something." Lucius said.

"It's not a well-known fact but Veritaserum doesn't react well with muggles, it can actually kill them." Severus told them. "It's one of the reasons why when we want the truth from a muggle we rely on the older truth serums or even using Legilimens on them."

"So she couldn't have gotten those letters or the truth out of them." Poppy said. "Where did she get the notes?"

"Did you actually see the notes?" Harry asked.

They thought for a few minutes. "No." The three of them replied. 

"I just honestly took her word for it. She was also the one who read most of the journals, I gave her copies of them. Oh, I didn't mention that I copied them, I got the charm to work as soon as I got back to my quarters. Yes, I know we said we would makes copies for all to read but I didn't tell her I had already did. I made the copies, early this evening. I had Dobby put the originals in my vault. She has a copy." Minerva said.

"It could be why she played her hand so early, thinking she has the originals and we don't have anything now." Ron added. "She wouldn't have done it otherwise."

"Actually since he has been dead, she hasn't been as smart, something that has been bothering me for a few months." Harry told them.

"She was so smart because Dumbledore gave her the books years ahead of time, for her to study. He also granted her unrestricted access to the restricted section and his library. She was in the unrestricted section during her first year. I bet if we checked she most likely bought books before she turned eleven at the bookstores, and considering she is a muggle-born it impressed us all with how smart she was. I wonder what else she got her hands on." Minerva said.

"Lucius, can we use that to get her grades reviewed? Including her NEWTs and OWLs?" Harry asked.

"Yes, especially if we have a record of it." Lucius answered.

Minerva grinned. "We do. I know Irma keeps detailed records of every book that has been checked out. She will have a separate list beyond the record I have from the Castle each time a restricted book is removed from the library. There is also one that is set on the Headmaster's door. So I have that also. Some of the books she had to have read are on the banned list." 

"Give it to Lucius. Lucius, do what you can."

"Gladly, totally destroy her records and reputation?" Lucius asked.

"Fully. Get it known it was for cheating, if possible, it will ban her from being able to take them again. Unless she submits to Legilimens and Veritaserum to prove she didn't use banned books or even had access to books that are restricted by magical means. She must have had access to the testing too. She always seemed to know what was going to be on our exams. She mentioned him assisting her in her studies, I just thought it was her usually questions that sparked a thousand other questions from her." Harry told them. "Minerva, Ron you mentioned that she knew what was in my parents Wills? How?" 

"She did?" Lucius asked. "She shouldn't have. The goblins can't release that type of information."

"You know it would also explain why she kept insisting that Severus wouldn't listen to us when we were talking about the journals." Ron added.

"That is very true. She did seem very sure of that aspect, I am wondering what else we missed?" Minerva stated. "It didn't seem like much at the time, but we should have realized something was off with how she took charge of getting information. Also, she might have had access to our exams ahead of time, Albus usually required us to submit copies of our tests in advance, now I know why." 

"I agree." Poppy said. "It does, however, explain a lot."

"What do you want to do about Molly and the others now?" Tom asked. "They are clearly feeling confident in their actions and don't feel we are a threat. Fudge and Umbridge as they said are useless and have paid for it, though I want them to pay for this, same with Black and Lupin."

Harry grinned. "I know and I agree." 

"Oh, I know that grin. What do you have planned?" Ron asked.

"Something they won't enjoy." Severus added. He also knew that grin and loved it when Harry used his full powers.

"Tomorrow when you file the complaint Lucius, push on finding out who reported it, and say you want them arrested for slander, and anything else you can think of. Use the fact that no one verified facts ahead of time, mention Draco still being out of the country. I can't return to work until at least next week, I don't want to push using my magic as of yet. I need to get used to the new power levels also." He looked at Minerva. "Minerva, you are going to go to Kingsley and mention to him, with some concern, how you found this list of books that Hermione had access to, show him how far it goes back. Get him to wonder what was going on, hint that you're not sure, but hint strongly that you found copies of the staff's tests in his drawer with Hermione's writing on it. Don't confirm or deny, just hint. Let him arrive at his own opinion, guided along by you."

"That will help when I go to the Board, with the list, since it will already investigate, it won't look like I am being petty. He will mention the tests to some of the Governors and they will do the rest." Lucius said.

"Exactly." Harry replied. "Poppy, in your medical exams of her, did you ever notice anything unusual?" 

"No, but she wasn't really up there that often. Though I am wondering about how she got Lupin's blood now."

"She did say she got it from healing him after a transformation, but if he is on it, he could have just given it to her." Tom said.

"I think he did. It was a large sample." Poppy told them. "I didn't think anything of it at the time, but with all the other things, it just another layer to what she has been doing to cover their tracks."

"I agree. Now Lupin and Black are staying at a cabin I own, I will be evicting them as soon as I can send an owl to Gringotts. Black has no property since I am Lord Black. Boy, were they upset that happened when I turned seventeen." Harry grinned again. "Dumbles there messed up by putting his puppet Azkaban, the charter prevents anyone from having the lordship if they have served any time."

"Oh, I bet he wasn't happy." Minerva grinned. "That man can't control his emotions and must have read Albus the riot act."

They all laughed at that image. "Filius, can you find out if anyone has been snooping around my accounts? I would go and ask but I am not up for the trip as of yet."

"I can, they won't mind me asking if you give me permission." Filius answered.

"I will write it up. Fred, George you need to give your father the purging potion again."

"We will, he isn't going to like it again." Fred stated.

"We will get him some protection gear he can wear that she can't take off." George added. "We will get some for the rest of the family too."

"Do so, and we will need to work on getting all of us equipped." Harry added. He looked at Lucius, Tom, and then Severus, indicating with his eyes they would need to speak afterward.

"It's late, so let's head back to bed, as it sounds like we are going to have a busy day tomorrow." Minerva said after several seconds of quiet. "Ron, why don't you sleep in the dorm tonight, set the password so no one can get in."

"I will thank you." Ron replied, "Fred, George you want to join me?"

"No, we have our own beds waiting for us." George spoke.

"We still have to open the store and need to make the potion for dad." Fred added.

"Good night." Harry state and everyone started to head out of the Headmistress' office. Lucius and Tom followed Severus and Harry to their quarters.

___________________________________________________________________________

"Harry, what do you want to do?" Tom asked after they poured themselves some tea.

"Get Umbridge and Fudge, find out what you can from them." Harry told them. "Severus, you have a bottle of Veritaserum they can use?"

"Yes, let me get it." Severus stood up and went to his lab.

"Anything else with the Board?" Lucius asked.

"Yes, start on getting those classes back, and get an audit." Harry told him. "See about getting rid of Binns and Sybill too."

"Ministry?" Tom asked.

"They know I work there, as an Unspeakable, but they don't know you do." Harry grinned, "I want you to look into the files and see if we can find evidence. Talk to the Death Eaters that work there and try to get as much evidence as we can. Since none of them have access to the Ministry, we are safe in that regard."

"I need to brew more, but I this was brewed last week, so it's very fresh." Severus said, handing the bottle to Tom.

"Do we want to speak to the muggles?" Severus asked taking his seat.

"I do, and Mrs. Figg. I want to find out if she actually got any information out of them, I don't think she did, but she mentioned letters and notes, I want them if they have them." Harry answered.

"I can go tonight." Tom told him. "I don't think that should wait, she might go and visit them."

"I always thought she didn't know where they were but I agree, go to them tonight, take backup but no one who hates muggles, my relatives will set them off." Harry warned.

"I will take Yaxley and Rookwood. They have great restraint." Tom answered.

"Good. Anything else?" Harry asked.

"No, nothing that can't wait." They answered. 

"Sounds good, meet tomorrow night?" Harry asked.

Tom and Lucius agreed. "I need to head home, Narcissa wasn't very happy with what happened but now I have answers for her." 

"Tell her, thank you for her patience." Harry grinned. 

"I will. May I use your floo?" Lucius asked.

Harry nodded. After he left, Harry looked at Tom. "What is wrong?"

"I was looking into the marks of the golem Death Eaters, I saw an interesting rune in it. I didn't place it until tonight when we were reviewing the memory. Hermione Granger and Molly Weasley have the same rune. It's a rune that prevents anyone from memory charming them." Tom said. 

"That explains a few things." Harry answered. "I never understood why Hermione never experienced a memory charm while Ron and I got a few of them over the years. I thought it was because she was with us, but if there is a rune on them to prevent it, it would enable them to be better spies, because no one would know they weren't memory charmed if they got caught by them."

"Exactly and another interesting thing, I noticed in the memory is that Molly Weasley isn't really a witch." 

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"I have seen her over the years and noticed she never changed, everyone ages, but she hasn't. Tonight while we were in the memory I noticed her ears. They are squarish, and on her head below the hairline is a tint of red."

"What do you think she is?" Severus asked.

"I am not sure, granted it might just be that she is a witch."

"She dyes her hair red." Harry told them. "She doesn't use a spell, says the muggle dyes last longer, she uses the ones that they use on furniture, I found the stuff in her laundry room."

"That explains the red." Tom said. 

"We will have to see if Ron or the Twins can provide us with any information." Severus told them.

"If she is, we might be able to use some of their blood to find out." Harry looked at Severus and they begin to think of experiments they could do. 

"I will leave that to you." Tom smiled. "I better get back, I believe my pillow is calling me."

"Night Tom." Severus and Harry said.


	8. Gathering the Information

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the next night.

The twins, with Lucius and Tom, arrived shortly before dinner in the Great Hall. Harry and Severus meet them at the entrance. "Meet before or after?" Lucius asked. Tom and Lucius learned a lot last night and today. Information that would ruin a few people if used correctly.

"After, I would like to be able to actually eat." Harry responded. "We will have our meeting after that." They headed to the Great Hall and took their seats, quietly speaking as the rest of the staff arrived. The meal passed quickly with everyone just relaxing and enjoying their conversations. 

Once in Minerva office's, the portraits were frozen to prevent them from listening to their conversation, all of them sitting comfortable. Lucius began with what happened at the Ministry and Board. "I actually was able to get a lot done. I spoke to Amelia, she was already aware of the situation and wasn't happy about it. She had already put the Aurors involved on suspension, all of them were fresh out of trainee academy. Turns out the three Senior Aurors on duty were already out on calls with other Junior Aurors. The trainees had orders to stay at the Ministry unless it was an emergency. Since I have their names, I figured we could look into them and make sure they aren't part of Dumbledore's unofficial group."

"If you can give me the names I can check into their Hogwarts background and also let you know if they were ones he mentioned or part of the Order." Minerva said. "He had a lot of people that weren't actively part of the Order during the Wars." 

Lucius pulled out a piece of parchment. "If you look, you will see Doge's grandson on there. I am not sure about Austin Meadowes*, I thought there was a Meadowes in the Order, but couldn't remember."

"Dorcas Meadowes, she was the only one actually known to have been killed by Him." Minerva said looking at the list. "Austin, I think he follows whatever his grandfather says, and his grandfather truly believes that Albus could do no wrong. Annette Fenwick is also a granddaughter of one of the Order members, Benjy Fenwick."

"So they would jump at the chance to raid Malfoy Manor." Ron stated. "I wonder how many others are linked to the Order."

"We have Kingsley on our side. I will explain after Lucius is finished." Minerva stated.

"Thank you. Amelia was confused by the report from Granger and Molly Weasley. Especially since she knew that Draco was still in Paris, it turns out her, Shacklebolt, and John Dawlish had spoken to Draco earlier that day, he put in a request for a dual international portkey. He wants to come home for Yule but needs to be back in Paris the next day. She ordered any further reports of that type of nature go through two Senior Aurors." 

"Well, at least she is doing something before, with Cornelius in office, nothing would have happened." Poppy remarked.

"What did Kingsley have to say?" Harry asked.

"That was a bit weird, he was bothered by what happened but more by how it happened, not why. It was like he didn't mind them doing the raid, but he wasn't happy that they did it without checking anything. If they had found anything, he would have been elated. I think if it were up to him they would have gotten a weak warning and told how to avoid doing anything embarrassing." Lucius explained.

"He was an Order member, however, I spoke to him after you. He was worried now about what happened, I didn't tell him everything about what is going on. I did hint a bit about finding some unsavory things about the core group of Albus supporters. When I mentioned some of the questionable things I found about Hermione. Kingsley said something about how it explained the sudden report last night." Minerva stated. "I am going to have tea with him tomorrow. I did drop a few clues to him about Hermione having access to things that she shouldn't have. He did say something interesting when I mentioned questionable test results. He said he had always wondered how she did has well as she did, because according to him, the Testers were worried about how exact she was on her answers. He said a few of the testers wanted to open in inquiry a few years ago after she took her OWLs. They said the test results were almost word for word with what the Examiners had written for their answer keys. Guess who stopped the inquiry?"

"Dumbledore." They all answered, shaking their heads.

"That is what some of the Board members told me too. It seems that during her third and fourth year, Septima Vector, Pomona Sprout, and Charity Burbage also stated the same thing. The inquiries were stopped by Doge and Dumbledore. I looked into the requests and they all said that the answers were almost exactly the wording of their answer key." Lucius said. "I copied the inquiries for us to have. I didn't want to have them disappear. I reopened new ones. I will need the list of books and anything else we can provide to get her grades and OWLs and NEWTs results removed. I also looked up a few laws, if we do succeed, which I know we will, her wand will be snapped unless she agrees to attend Hogwarts for seven years, retaking all her original selected classes and retakes the OWLs and NEWTs exams."

"She can't just retake them? I thought that once you took your OWLs, you could take your NEWTs almost immediately after that." Severus asked.

"Normally you could, however, when cheating is exposed the rules change. She would normally be prevented from doing anything but since she had basically a professor providing her with the ability to cheat, she gets a chance to earn another attempt." Lucius answered. "It will, however, be known she did cheat and how she was able to cheat. They are looking into preventing anything like that again."

"I will also do the same thing. Albus always wanted a copy of everyone's tests, assignments, and even their practicals. He always had, so no one would have thought it strange for him to request them for her." Minerva stated.

"Unless he aided others." Harry remarked. "Think about some of the students he allowed to get away with things, my father and Black included."

"Providing Black with the answers would explain a lot. I used to wonder about his work, it never matched what he did in my class." Minerva stated. "I can go back and look through records, but I am not sure if it would do any good in that regard."

"It's not worth it. We can do more damage if we force other areas or specific people. Check out Molly, Black, Umbridge, and Fudge records. While I know Fudge and Umbridge don't have a lot of power, I still want to nail them, especially Umbridge." Harry stated.

"We can help." The twins said as one. 

"Actually for you two, I have a better assignment. You two are to get close to Black and Lupin, use the joke shop as in. Tell them you want to learn more about their pranks. I was going to evict them, but I thought about it today, and I like knowing where they are." Harry told them. "I really do need to go to Gringotts."

"Yes, you do. I heard back from my relatives. They said that there have been a number of attempts to get access to your vaults over the years. Ironclaw would actually like for you to go and visit him. They have been able to prevent any access using the fact that you are the last of the Potters and while Albus was your magical guardian, your parents used blood wards on your vaults. So no matter who he sent to get into your vault, they couldn't. It was why he had you go each year with someone to your vaults. Ironclaw stated they were prevented from speaking to you directly about this because they couldn't get you alone. After the war, they said someone else was handling your vaults." Filius stated.

"I have been. I wonder why he didn't say anything to me about wanting to see you." Lucius said.

"Most likely because of his dealings with Albus." Filius answered. "They added a new clause to their accounts, it stated unless the owner of the account gives permission they can't speak to someone about the vaults. It was how they stopped Albus from knowing if anyone left anything to Harry." He explained about some of the other new clauses they established because of Albus Dumbledore's dealings. Well new to him, as the clauses were only about twenty or so years old.

"As anyone heard from Granger today?" Tom asked.

"Yes, she was here earlier. I told her that Harry and Severus were still in their quarters, Ron was at the twin's shop and I had some end of year things I was still working on. She seemed relieved." Minerva responded. 

"She flooed our store looking for Ron, we told her he was out getting us some supplies." Fred answered.

"Also told her, we wouldn't know when he would be back as some of them were a bit remote." George stated.

"Since we have done that before to Ron, she seemed fine with it, just said to tell Ron to owl her when he could." They said together.

"She sent a bird after me. I sent her a reply saying I was going to be running around the country looking for stuff for the twins and Severus. I alluded to the fact that Harry needed some more potions." Ron told them.

"Fine. We will keep that going for a bit, I think the last few times you went for potions ingredients you were away at least a week?" Harry asked.

"Yes, gives us time to get some things done." Ron already moved some of this things out of their quarters into his new ones.

"Can we use Skeeter to help us get things out about her?" Severus asked. 

"I already planned on it. We will be meeting Rita the day after tomorrow. I want to get the facts out about her cheating and Poppy how about abuse cases?" Harry answered.

"I already gathered the information. I will submit it tomorrow to the Ministry. I know they can't do anything about most of them, but the last of his tenure students are will be incoming sixth and seventh years, so it will get them involved." Poppy stated.

"I have a list of the students, I am going to see about finding homes for them." Minerva told them.

"We can help with that, I have a lot of families that want more children. They couldn't because Albus would block them from adopting anyone else because they were dark or grey families." Tom said.

"Can you get me a list, I want to be able to provide the Ministry with names. I have a few of my own, I know dark doesn't mean evil, despite Albus' views." Minerva stated. "Sirius Black and those of his ilk would love for everyone to believe that." 

"I can owl it to you when I get back to my office." Tom told her.

"We have the journals, everyone research what you can find in your copy and we will meet next week unless something comes up, which I am sure will." Harry stated. Earlier Minerva had given each person a copy of different journals. Everyone had roughly about five journals to read and research. It was going to be a lot of them hitting the archives of the Daily Prophet, Gringotts, and sitting in the library.

Lucius and Tom headed for Severus and Harry's quarters as soon as it was possible to escape the polite chit chat after they broke off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Meadowes is how it is spelled on a few sites.


	9. Dursley, Molly, Hermione and Trouble Arises

Harry sat down as Lucius and Tom looked at Severus as he went to the kitchenette. "So I am taking it the whole domestic issue has been completely settled?" Lucius asked. it had been a hellish few years for them, because of Dumbledore.

"No, I still need to explain you two and your position." Harry answered. He wasn't sure how Severus would handle it. There was so much that they still didn't understand. So much they needed to learn. The marks were so different. He would need to look at Severus' to find out why it was so different.

"It best be soon." Tom stated, not sure how much more our bond can take of this latest test. They stretched it already. Since Lucius and Tom were the only ones left of the elite of his original regime, besides Severus. 

"Now would be better." Lucius answered. They were looking desperate. They needed the connection to Harry, they needed him to be around them. They knew it wasn't part of the original mark, so Dumbledore had to do something, they just didn't know how.

"Kneel and make yourselves feel better." Harry instructed. He watched Severus return to the main living area. He watched how quickly Severus' mask went up. "Severus there is no sexual relationship. It's part of their bond, when Dumbledore interfered Tom's original mark, by creating the fake, he infused some aspects that we weren't woven into the original."

Severus' eyes went a bit wide. "From him looking at mine. He did all kinds of test on it, so he must have been looking for a way to gather the originals. I know he tried to transfer it a few times. I can provide the memories to show what might have happened."

"That does explain it. The memories, however, might not help. He specialized in doing wandless compulsion charms, and runic inscription. We still need to review them, to see what he tried. Did he speak in parsel?" Tom remarked. "He had to be looking for a long time. He had to change the mark a lot. It would explain why Severus never felt the need but listened to Dumbledore. This compulsion started as soon as I returned when I was in the presence of Harry."

"For me, it was there the first time I saw him." Lucius stated. "I did everything I could to resist."

"No, I think that is what caused him problems. Why he needed to come up with the new mark. His inability to change the mark could have been part of the reason he wanted Harry in the muggle world." Severus stated. "He wanted you gone, you were placed that night at your muggles relatives. The Mutt wasn't even arrested, he was found three days later. Minerva used to say she wondered how you would have turned out if the Mutt raised you. He had to have done a magical scan on you and found the Horcrux."

"I would have been a James Jr. if he did." Harry muttered. "We need to read those journals. I always thought he put me there for me to be viewed him as a savior and obey him. It would also explain him wanting Sirius in Azkaban, keeping him there until he was needed. He certainly kept control of him after he escaped."

"I know he tried it with me, I just never saw him as a savior. After the Mutt set me up to be werewolf chow and he did nothing, I knew how he saw anyone who was a snake." Severus responded. "He tried that savior routine with me and a few others. I know I confused him when I went to him to save Lily." Severus looked at Tom and Lucius were clearly feeling improved, they certainly looked better. "The other Death Eaters?"

"The ones who aren't in Azkaban don't see me that often, we know the ones Dumbledore created are either in Azkaban or dead. The Lestrange and a few others, weren't his, but I do wonder a bit about them now, he had plenty of time to review their marks in Azkaban, no one would have stopped him. We need to review those journals. I will see about getting the copies from Minerva tomorrow." Harry looked at Severus. "Tom usually arrives at the Ministry with me, so he doesn't have to do the kneeling, we found we can go a few hours in between if they are in my presence. However, since they haven't been able for a few days due to the past few days events, they needed it now." 

"I am fine with that." Severus told him, he looked at Harry, he knew Harry wasn't sleeping with either Tom or Lucius, as he slept every night in his bed with him. If Dumbledore made it part of their marks, who was he to deny that aspect. He knew what Dumbledore did in their contract, he wasn't surprised by this new knowledge. "I know who's bed Harry sleeps in each night."

Tom and Lucius laughed. They knew of Harry's long-standing crush on Severus and knew when it turned to love. Lucius was also very in love with his wife, Narcissa. She would kill them both if they cheated on their spouses. "What happened with my relatives?" Harry asked.

"We were right, she never went there. We did get the notes, she was right about him wanting you submissive, humble, and giving them free rein in how they treated you. They accepted that he would do nothing about it, and they took advantage of it. After several hours of listening to them whine and complain about how much of a burden you were, it was all I could to not kill them." Tom remarked. "I know Yaxley was close."

"The notes, were there a lot of them?" Harry asked.

Severus sat down on the arm of Harry's chair, he felt Harry caressed his back. He knew hearing this was tough for his husband. He looked down at Tom and Lucius who were basking in his husband's power. Power that wasn't borrowed, leached or stolen, it was pure power. Power only a real Lord Of Magic could have. It did explain a lot, like how Harry was able to do a Patronus Charm at thirteen.

"Yes, almost weekly for the first few years, complaining about having to deal with you. They eased off after they were able to put you to work. There were a lot of demands for money. They were well paid, so we will need to review the account for those years." Tom stated. "So while Dumbledore might not have been able to get into your vaults, he could have authorized payment to the Dursley family. That wouldn't have been out of bounds for the goblins to do and it would have been totally legal."

"I can do that, but you still need to stop by Gringotts and finalize those contracts we submitted. You will need to authorize my review of the accounts. We might be able to get the funds back from the Dumbledore family vaults." Lucius stated, his mind already working on ways to fix the muggles. "Even get the money back from the muggles, have them reimburse you for everything."

"I like that idea better, make them feel the pinch as it were." Harry answered. "They love money and I know it would make them feel that the freaks were interfering with their lives again. They would also have to work extra hours to make up their lifestyle for fear of the neighbors talking about them. If they only knew how much the neighbors did speak about them. Especially their son."

"We had the displeasure of meeting their spawn, he is worse than both of them. He was just released from jail when we arrived. Turns out he was in there for assault, theft, and the file said they suspected him of arson." Tom couldn't believe the boy was out of prison after serving such a short term. "I think Dumbledore paid to keep the boy out of prison. The records, Rookwood went through their financial records while we worked on your uncle, we found them to be very extensive. Also found extensive records with the bribes to the police and other authority muggle figures." 

"I am not surprised, Dudley was a bully when we were younger." Harry responded. "Mrs. Figg?"

"She died, according to the neighbors and your relatives. When we compared the dates, it seemed it was shortly after Dumbledore's death. It listed heart attack." 

"Do you think he did something?" Severus asked. He didn't think the mark would look like a heart attack.

"After reviewing the files at work about how the golems and how some of his Death Eater's died, I think she had a mark. It might have not been one like he created for them, but I wouldn't put it past him to have marked her as a way to control her." Tom answered. "I am having Rookwood looking at the muggle medical report."

"I would like to look at it too." Severus stated. He did have a basic healers license. "I might be able to find if it was a potion, I don't know how well versed Rookwood is in potions."

"He will pass a copy over to you. You are the best." Harry smiled at Severus. "The raid?"

"When I went into speak to Madam Bones, she already had the paperwork filled out for me to sign regarding the raid. She also stated she is trying to get in touch with Molly Weasley, it seems Molly wasn't answering her floo this morning. She wasn't able to find Granger either. However, I did think it was interesting she is putting Dawlish on the case. Kingsley arrived shortly after that, made an apology, told me they would resolve the issue and make sure nothing like that happens again."

"That is interesting. Maybe Minerva's words made him start to wonder." Harry thought for a few minutes. "Keep on it, I want to use it as groundwork to discredit Molly Weasley. The Board?"

"I have a meeting set up for tomorrow. Between the previous reports, with Minerva backing up by supplying the test answers, her OWLs and NEWTs will be revoked and she will get a letter the next day. A notice will be put into the Ministry. I will make sure our favorite reporter finds that notice. I will also mention the new classes, with Minerva's support, we should have no issue with getting them approved, as most of the Board has wanted to add classes and get rid of Binns and Sybill."

"Fudge and Umbridge?" Harry saw the feral gleam that appeared in Lucius and Tom's eyes. "I know you must have left an impression on them."

"We did. However, they really didn't know anything. Fudge lined his pockets, took a lot of favors for it. He worked did a lot of work for Dumbledore, including allowing him unfettered access to Azkaban, so that theory you have about him with the Lestranges might be correct. I am also wondering if he had access to Black, it could be why the man remained so loyal to him. You know a visit from Dumbledore telling him how hard he is trying to free him, asking him how you are doing, can I provide you with anything. Dumbledore would have used those tactics." Tom stated. 

"Sounds like something he would do. Umbridge and the Blood Quill?" 

"She confirmed Dumbledore knew. She said he confronted her with the use after one of the first years had a wrapped hand, it's why she only used it on muggle-borns or those who parents wouldn't report her. She was warned by him not to use it on half-blood whose parents would report her. He gave her a list of those students. I got the list, but it means nothing without any further evidence." Lucius stated. "I took her memory of it, but the list could be viewed as a way to control the situation from a corrupt Ministry Official, who had the title of High Inquisitor." 

"He really knows how to cover himself." Severus sighed. "I mean, most people would have been caught long ago, but he did it in such a way, that with his reputation no one would believe anything but good about him. Even those journals, no one saw him writing in them, so no one that could testify."

"Very true, so the elves found them, they could say anyone put them there as a setup." Tom agreed. "Well, we will just keep working away. We got two of his people, if we get Lupin, maybe we can get some clearer answers. That man is too weak to resist. Granger and Molly might be a different story."

"Granger is cunning, we brought that act in the Infirmary." Severus stated.

"I'm so glad I did that secrecy spell." Harry told them. "At least know we know she can't tell Molly what we know." 

"Do you think Molly will get any of her children on her side?" 

"Ginny." Severus responded. "She was furious at our bonding and if Molly or Granger promised her Harry, she would do it."

"I hate to say it, but Severus is correct. That girl hanged on me, no matter how many times I said I viewed her as a sister and wasn't interested in girls." Harry sounded annoyed by the girl's actions. "Granger was always pushing us to be together too, changed her mind though about a month before we found out about the contract, I never understood why, until now."

Their floo was suddenly chiming. "Again? Is this going to be a nightly event?" Severus asked as Harry, Lucius and Tom rose. Lucius and Tom sat down on the couch, while Harry went to answer the floo.

"Harry, thank Merlin." Ron appeared in the floo. 

"What happened?" 

"Granger. She had an arrest warrant issued against me, said I tried to rape her. It's already been handled, as at the time I supposed to have done it, I was with all of you in Minerva's office. Madam Bones and Kingsley appeared tonight after you left, to speak to Minerva about getting access to my rooms. Thankfully, with her memories, they can now dismiss the charges. I need Lucius' help tomorrow, I want to press my own charges."

"Lucius?" Harry turned his head. 

"I will meet with him in the morning at nine, we can head to the Ministry. I am sure Amelia will be expecting you."

"I already told her I wanted to file charges she is the one who suggested I speak to you first, she said you would be able to provide me with advice that she couldn't." Ron responded.

"Yes, I can. It will mostly be what type of charges, the different types of punishment you can request, as you are a pureblood, male and have been defamed by a muggle-born girl. I am assuming she isn't a virgin?"

"No, she isn't, she wasn't when we got together. She told me she lost it to Dean Thomas, same as my sister."

"A yes, there is a reason why they called him the Virgin Robber." Harry commented.

"Will Mr. Thomas make a statement in that regard?" Lucius asked. He had heard the rumors from Draco regarding Mr. Thomas' title.

"Yes, he bragged about it enough. He kept the names and dates in a little black book. I can get him to meet us tomorrow at the Ministry."

"Do so and anyone else who can back up his story." Lucius responded. "Focus your memories on your times together and tomorrow before we leave, Amelia will have Kingsley take them from you, but it is best since I have a feeling there is more than one that you gather them in your mind tonight."

"Great, see I wouldn't have done that without your advice. Thanks. Sorry for interrupting." Ron stated. "I'm still a bit wound up from hearing that. I can't figure out why she would do that."

"She did it because you were expected to be away for at least a week, that would have given her time to take care of Mr. Thomas, and make sure everything would point to you doing exactly that. I wouldn't be surprised if over the next few days both of them were apparating to places that you would be looking for ingredients in the attempt to place a memory charm on you. They had to have lessons from Dumbledore." Harry stated. 

"Very true." Tom, Severus, and Lucius agreed, while Ron just looked sick at the idea. 

"Glad I am staying here." Ron stated. "I will let the twins know, so they can be ready if they show up there. I can't believe this mess." 

"I will see you in the morning." Harry told him. "Good night."

"Night, and thanks again." Ron disappeared.

"That was a daring move, what do you think they aimed to accomplish by it?" Severus wondered what the women were thinking, as a plan it had so many different ways to backfire, Ron being at Hogwarts was one.

"I am not sure. Maybe they were hoping to remove Ron, with a memory charm, he would have been charged with rape if she is even seen as saying no. The lessons from Dumbledore would have shown at least Molly knows how to implant false memories. They might try to go after Severus next. Granger can't mention me or Tom." 

"Be very hard to remove Severus out of the equation, and I think they both know it or they would have tried it already. Molly and Ginny were set on me marrying Ginny." Harry answered. "Ron, however, that is confusing, unless Molly is afraid of what he will tell the family."

"That could be it. Arthur would disown Ron for raping Granger. Any family would. Rape isn't tolerated in our world at all. It had to be Granger's plan with Molly doing the details." Severus stated.

"Agreed." All of them replied.

"They are, however, forgetting Dumbledore's key part of all his plans, deniability." Harry paused. "He always made sure to cover his bases or that his image was polished enough that no one would believe anything that would damage his image."

"Molly has the motherly image, but not a pristine image regarding politics. Granger, once the cheating and this gets out won't have an image worth saving. She will need to return to the muggle world." Tom stated.

"That is it. Molly is doing it to get rid of her. She views Granger has a liability and wants her gone. She probably wasn't going to add fake memories to Granger or Ron, just let the girl fall." Harry jumped up. "Since Molly can't get any useful information out of her, except that the journals were found and they know Ron has escaped, Molly is cleaning up." 

"Get Granger out of the way, even if she was to give testimony regarding Dumbledore, her word, her memories would all be discarded as being the tales from a spiteful woman." Lucius stated. "That is well played by Molly."

"Indeed." Severus stated. "Molly doesn't know the full truth, so that will aid us."

"Yes, and the cheating will still damage Dumbledore. I believe Rita will be having some interesting stories over the next few days." They all grinned at Harry's words. "Well, it's been an informative night, let's see what tomorrow will bring."


	10. Solutions

Ron and Lucius made their way to the Great Hall. They had tried to floo or get in touch with Harry all day but failed because of the numerous wards over the Ministry. They knew Harry and the rest of them were going to be surprised by their news. 

They found everyone getting ready to head to the Great Hall for dinner. "You might want to hold off, we have a lot of news to share with you." Lucius told them after they greeted them. 

"Very good news." Ron was smiling at them. 

"Minerva's office?" Harry asked as he looked at the woman in question.

"It would be wonderful if we could. Especially since we want Dumbledore to hear all of the news." Lucius grinned. He knew he was going to be smiling for a long time.

Harry gave a slight grin as Minerva said. "I will arrange for us to have some tea while we hear this news."

Once seated, Lucius took the lead on giving the news. "Granger and Molly showed up at the Ministry after Amelia sent a message saying they had Ron under arrest." He took a sip of tea. "When they arrived, they were escorted into two separate interrogation rooms. We put Granger in one that would that would allow her to hear Molly speaking."

"Amelia's idea." Ron told them.

"Yes, it was. So Amelia went in and started casual speaking to Molly. She explained how Ron was being placed under arrest for rape, but they had a few concerns. One of their concerns was that Granger claiming she lost her virginity to Ron when they had evidence that it was really someone else." They wanted Dumbledore to hear everything otherwise, Lucius would be showing them the memories.

"Someone else?" Molly quietly asked, which surprised us, because I have never heard the woman speak quietly in her life. Amelia says that there are a few witnesses that will verify that Ms. Granger wasn't a virgin. She explained that doesn't excuse rape. She continued to explain the punishment for rape." Lucius looked around the room and could see everyone was trying to keep from looking at Dumbledore.

"Molly starts crying, claiming, how she didn't believe her son could do something so disgusting. She said how Hermione showed up last night, crying about being raped, but her clothes were fine and there wasn't a mark on her." Lucius took another sip of tea glanced to Dumbledore's portrait.

"Amelia starts asking her some questions about how Granger's attitude, her distress levels, and if Molly had the clothes. Molly turned in a fine performance. She told how she had the clothes, and they were in the top of the laundry bin, that Granger fell asleep without any problems, and that after the first few minutes of crying appeared fine and didn't seem at all distressed describing how her poor boy raped that lying girl." Lucius picked up a biscuit.

"Meanwhile, Granger was screaming up a storm in the other room, started telling Dawlish and Kingsley about the variety of potions that my mother has used over the years on Order members, Harry, my father. She starts screaming about how they to get Harry back under their control so that they could fulfill their plan." Ron picked up on the story. 

"She did?" Harry asked. 

"Yes, while she was listening to Amelia at the beginning, Kingsley had been informing her about the results from the Board regarding her OWLs and NEWTs and how she was being charged with cheating. After hearing my mother deny the rape charge, she realized my mother was tying up the loose ends. So Granger started telling them everything she could. Kingsley left at one point to bring Amelia in." Ron stated. 

"I left the viewing room and joined Ron, with Rookwood and two other Aurors." Lucius added. "When I entered I saw Granger was already reciting what she knew. She started with their first year, how Dumbledore set up Harry to enter Gryffindor, arranged for the Stone to be used, even how he knew that Voldemort was on the back of Quirrell's head. She told them she had Dumbledore's journals to prove everything. When she got to Black and Lupin, Amelia sent two Aurors to go and arrest them." 

"I miss all the good stuff." Harry stated. "I would have loved to seen the two of them dragged in."

"It gets even better. As Molly and Granger were ratting each other out. Arthur arrived with the goblins. They submitted all the purges that Arthur had to have done, the number of times Dumbledore tried to get into Harry's vaults. The biggest thing the submitted was the records of abuse. Poppy, Amelia still wants your copies as confirmation. Now they also submitted the payments the Dursley family received, and the money did come from your vault Harry. Ironclaw said it is all being returned, their house is actually yours as well as many of their investments that they had made with your funds." Lucius said.

"Black and Lupin were spouting off a lot of stuff too." Ron added. "Black looked like Bella and my mother combined. He was furious. His mouth wouldn't stop, and the Aurors got it all. They just let him run his mouth. He went on about how Dumbledore was trying to control the votes using Harry seats. How Dumbledore created the Death Eaters and the marks." 

"He what?" Tom asked as he leaned forward.

"Yes, he said all the Death Eaters were either golems or ones he forced to take the mark. They are now going to question each Death Eater and find out if they were willing or not. They are also going to reopen all the death and find out who was a golem and see if the original people were marked or not." Lucius explained. 

"They are going to find out who was a Dumbledore's supporter, and what exactly anyone who is in Azkaban did. Since Black also admitted that he wasn't working for the Dark Lord but Dumbledore and that Peter Pettigrew was the one who betrayed the Potters and Pettigrew also worked for Dumbledore. Which set off Lupin, he didn't know that. Especially how Black explained that they thought it was Lupin who was betraying them." Ron told them.

"So a lot of people are going to be released from Azkaban." Tom smiled as he looked at Harry. They had been trying to figure out how to get their members released since they weren't involved in what Dumbledore did.

"Exactly." Harry replied. "Lupin?"

"Lupin was a bit of a surprise, he didn't really say much until after they got Black under control. Once they had him under control, Lupin started explaining how everything was for the greater good. They ended up giving him some Veritaserum. He started talking about how Dumbledore allowed Black and James Potter to cheat. He provided them with the answers to exams so that they would be Aurors. He said he was encouraged to make sure Granger knew what was coming up on exams. Lupin provided her with his past exams from when he was a student, as well as passed her the exam information Dumbledore gave him. He revealed about how he knew about the abuse but was under a Vow to not do anything about it. He was prevented from removing you from your relatives." Lucius said.

"So the four of them are now under arrest?" Minerva asked.

"Yes, and it's not looking good for any of them. They are turning on each other and providing everything they can as a way to protect themselves. They all think they can work a deal." Lucius commented. "The best part is Amelia didn't even have to do anything."

"As soon as Granger realized my mother wasn't going through with the plan, she spilled everything." 

"When are their trials?" Harry asked. 

"Once Amelia figures out everything. There are numerous charges she wants to file, and with all the evidence, she believes all four of them can have their trial on the same day. Right now, they are just organizing everything. Kingsley was a bit leery by the information about Dumbledore, but when my dad showed up and showed him the evidence, he threw his support behind Amelia."

"So we can't punish them?" Tom quietly asked Harry.

"No, not in that sense, but I think Azkaban is going to be very rough on the four of them when the information is released." Harry answered him. 

Lucius smirked as he turned to Dumbledore. "Your portraits are being removed and your card is going to be revoked." 

Dumbledore glared down at them as the other Headmasters started clapping. "Finally, got caught." 

"When will his portrayed be removed from Hogwarts?" Phineas Black asked. 

"We can remove it now." Lucius replied. "I believe Harry and Severus would like that honor."

Harry grinned and quietly spoke to Severus, who nodded his agreement to whatever Harry said. Harry stood up. "We aren't going to destroy this copy of your portrait. We have a better idea." 

___________________________________________________________________________________

A week later:

Harry and Severus walked down Diagon Alley, behind them were Tom, Lucius, Narcissa, Draco, Filius, Ron, Minerva, and Poppy. They stopped in front of the Daily Prophet. "Mr. Hicks, thank you for allowing us to do this." Harry greeted the editor and owner as he exited the building when he saw them arriving.

"My pleasure, as you can see we set everything up."

Harry nodded to Severus. Severus pulled from his robes the shrunken portrait of Albus Dumbledore. As he did so, Harry started to speak. "I know all of you wonderful people have been reading what Albus Dumbledore has done to your children, to your friends, to Hogwarts, and to the Ministry. All of his portraits have been removed from Hogwarts, the Ministry and his card. We have one portrait left." He pointed to the frame Severus of was holding.

Severus placed it on the brick wall with a sticking charm, one they got from the former Lady Black. She gladly gave up the charm when they informed her what they were going to use it for. Phineas arranged for her to visit them at Hogwarts. Severus could see the rotten fruit and vegetables the crowd had ready. He enlarged the portrait and Dumbledore smiled at the crowd. "Ah, how lovely to see everyone. I am sure we can all work-" He got a tomato to the face for his efforts.

"Very good aim, Dean." Harry remarked.

"I have been practicing all week." Dean replied.

"Now, as you call can see, he will be here for the next week, after that, Hogsmeade, and down the line. He will be making stops at every magical village to face their own brand of justice. When he is finally returned to Diagon Alley at the end of the Summer, right before Hogwarts starts, we will have a party and his portrait will be burned." Harry told the crowd. 

"The history books have all been updated with the truth." Mr. Blotts informed the crowd. "If you present to me a receipt that you bought some fruit or vegetables, you will receive a free updated copy of Hogwarts: A History." 

Minerva nudged Tom. "I hope you provided enough." 

"I did. I even made sure to donate a supply to Hogwarts." Tom answered her. 

Severus whispered into Harry's ear. "I think Tom still has his crush on Minerva." 

"I know he does."

Harry guided Severus away from the portrait. "If everyone is ready, may your aim hold true." 

They all watched the crowd gather and voice their displeasure at Dumbledore. Harry handed a rotten piece of apple to Severus. Severus grinned, enlarged it and threw it at the portrait as he said, "I told you I would see you ruined and burned."


End file.
